Effect of microwave irradiation time on microwave-assisted weak acid protein hydrolysis

Horse heart myoglobin (MYG) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were hydrolyzed by microwave-assisted weak-acid hydrolysis for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 min using 2% formic acid (FA) at 100°C. Generally, the number of identified peptides increased with increasing irradiation time, indicating that the duration of microwave irradiation is linked to the efficiency of hydrolysis. For MYG, irradiation for 60 min provided the highest number of identified peptides, the greatest sequence coverage values and the highest MASCOT score values among the investigated irradiation times. Irradiation of BSA for 50 min, however, yielded a greater number of peptides than irradiation for 60 min due to the generation of miscleaved peptides after microwave irradiation for 50min.