Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Multiplexed absolute quantification in proteomics using artificial QCAT proteins of concatenated signature peptides

Abstract

Absolute quantification in proteomics usually involves simultaneous determination of representative proteolytic peptides and stable isotope–labeled analogs. The principal limitation to widespread implementation of this approach is the availability of standard signature peptides in accurately known amounts. We report the successful design and construction of an artificial gene encoding a concatenation of tryptic peptides (QCAT protein) from several chick (Gallus gallus) skeletal muscle proteins and features for quantification and purification.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Design and implementation of the QCAT strategy.
Figure 2: Use of the QCAT in quantification.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Righetti, P.G., Campostrini, N., Pascali, J., Hamdan, M. & Astner, H. Eur. J. Mass Spectrom. (Chichester, Eng.) 10, 335–348 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Gerber, S.A., Rush, J., Stemman, O., Kirschner, M.W. & Gygi, S.P. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 6940–6945 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Pan, S. et al. Mol. Cell. Proteomics 4, 182–190 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Pratt, J.M. et al. Mol. Cell. Proteomics 1, 579–591 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Doherty, M.K. et al. Proteomics 4, 2082–2093 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Doherty, M.K., Whitehead, C., McCormack, H., Gaskell, S.J. & Beynon, R.J. Proteomics 5, 522–533 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Brancia, F.L. et al. Electrophoresis 22, 552–559 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council grants to R.J.B. and S.J.G. We are grateful to M. Fischer, Entelechon for his advice. We are grateful to B. Callen for assistance with expression of the QCAT.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert J Beynon.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The QCAT concept has been submitted for patent protection by Entelechon and three of the authors (RJB, SJG and JMP) are cited as inventors.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Figure 1

The DNA sequence, translated protein sequence and features of the QCAT. (PDF 639 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 109 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Beynon, R., Doherty, M., Pratt, J. et al. Multiplexed absolute quantification in proteomics using artificial QCAT proteins of concatenated signature peptides. Nat Methods 2, 587–589 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth774

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth774

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing