Increasing proteome coverage with offline RP HPLC coupled to online RP nanoLC–MS

Fractionation prior to mass spectrometry is an indispensable step in proteomics. In this paper we report the success of performing offline reversed phase high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) fractionation on a C18 2.0 mm × 150 mm column at the peptide level with microliter per minute flow rates prior to online nano-flow reversed phase liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (nanoLC–MS) using the well-studied fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A C18 75 μm × 150 mm column was used online and the online elution gradients for each fraction were adjusted in order to obtain well resolved separation. Comparing this method directly to only performing nanoLC–MS we observed a 61.6% increase in the number of identified proteins. At a 1% false discovery rate 1028 proteins were identified using two dimensions of RPLC versus 636 proteins identified in a single nano-flow separation. The majority of proteins identified by one dimension of nano-LC were present in the proteins identified in our two dimensional strategy. Although increasing analysis time, this non-orthogonal and facile pre-fractionation method affords a more comprehensive examination of the proteome.