Highly Selective Separation and Enrichment of Phosphopeptides by Uranyl-Salophen Immobilized Silica Gel Material

The characterization of phosphoproteins requires highly specific methods for the separation and enrichment of phosphopeptides. Here we report a novel metal ion-immobilized solid phase material for the separation and enrichment of phosphopeptides. The material is uranyl-salophen-silica gel (USSG) particles in which salophen is a tetradentate ligand of uranyl ion. In USSG salophen is connected on the surface of silica gel and uranyl is bound on the surface through its coordination with salophen. Phosphopeptides can be selectively retained by USSG because uranyl-salophen can bind phosphate moiety with strong affinity and high selectivity. The new material USSG has been successfully used for the separation of phosphopeptides from peptide mixtures with the separation efficiency of 97.0% to 97.4%.