Zirconium oxide aerogel for effective enrichment of phosphopeptides with high binding capacity.
In this study, zirconium oxide (ZrO(2)) aerogel was synthesized via a green sol-gel approach, with zirconium oxychloride, instead of the commonly used alkoxide with high toxicity, as the precursor. With such material, phosphopeptides from the digests of 4 pmol of β-casein with the coexistence of 100 times (mol ratio) BSA could be selectively captured, and identified by MALDI-TOF MS. Due to the large surface area (416.0 m(2) g(-1)) and the mesoporous structure (the average pore size of 10.2 nm) of ZrO(2) aerogel, a 20-fold higher loading capacity for phosphopeptide, YKVPQLEIVPN[pS]AEER (MW 1952.12), was obtained compared to that of commercial ZrO(2) microspheres (341.5 vs. 17.87 mg g(-1)). The metal oxide aerogel was further applied in the enrichment of phosphopeptides from 100 ng nonfat milk, and 17 phosphopeptides were positively identified, with a 1.5-fold improvement in phosphopeptide detection compared with previously reported results. These results demonstrate that ZrO(2) aerogel can be a powerful enrichment material for phosphoproteome study.
Key Laboratory of Separation Sciences for Analytical Chemistry, National Chromatographic R. & A. Center, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China.
Liyuan
L
Zhang
Jin
J
Xu
Liangliang
L
Sun
Junfeng
J
Ma
Kaiguang
K
Yang
Zhen
Z
Liang
Lihua
L
Zhang
Yukui
Y
Zhang
D000327:Adsorption; D000818:Animals; D002364:Caseins / Q000737:chemistry; D002417:Cattle; D008863:Microspheres; D010748:Phosphopeptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016062:Porosity; D011485:Protein Binding; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; D015040:Zirconium / Q000737:chemistry*
D002364:Caseins; D010748:Phosphopeptides; D015040:Zirconium; C028541:zirconium oxide