Samples were reduced and alkylated using dithiothreotiol (DTT; 2 mM, final concentration) and methyl methanthiosulfonate (MMTS; 5 mM final concentration). Proteins were digested overnight with endoproteinase Glu-C (from Staphylococcus aureus V8, Sigma) in 100 mM ammonium bicarbonate at 37 °C.
Peptides were separated on a reversed-phase column (Acclaim PepMap RSLC column, 2 μ, 100 Å, 75 μm × 500 mm, Thermo Fisher) by a linear gradient from 0.8 to 32% acetonitrile in 0.1% formic acid over 30 min on an RSLC nano HPLC system (Dionex). The eluting peptides were directly analyzed using a hybrid quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometer (QExactive, Thermo Fisher). The QExactive mass spectrometer was operated in data-dependent mode, using a full scan (m/z range 350-2,000, nominal resolution 140,000, target value 1 × 106) followed by MS/MS scans of the 12 most abundant ions. MS/MS spectra were acquired at a resolution of 17,500 using normalized collision energy 30%, isolation width of 2 and the target value was set to 5 × 104. Precursor ions selected for fragmentation (charge state 3 and higher) were put on a dynamic exclusion list for 10 s (dynamic exclusion tolerance is 10 ppm on QExactive by default). Additionally, the underfill ratio was set to 20% resulting in an intensity threshold of 2 × 104. The peptide match feature and the exclude isotopes feature were enabled.
Peptides were separated on a reversed-phase column (Acclaim PepMap RSLC column, 2 μ, 100 Å, 75 μm × 500 mm, Thermo Fisher) by a linear gradient from 0.8 to 32% acetonitrile in 0.1% formic acid over 30 min on an RSLC nano HPLC system (Dionex). The eluting peptides were directly analyzed using a hybrid quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometer (QExactive, Thermo Fisher). The QExactive mass spectrometer was operated in data-dependent mode, using a full scan (m/z range 350-2,000, nominal resolution 140,000, target value 1 × 106) followed by MS/MS scans of the 12 most abundant ions. MS/MS spectra were acquired at a resolution of 17,500 using normalized collision energy 30%, isolation width of 2 and the target value was set to 5 × 104. Precursor ions selected for fragmentation (charge state 3 and higher) were put on a dynamic exclusion list for 10 s (dynamic exclusion tolerance is 10 ppm on QExactive by default). Additionally, the underfill ratio was set to 20% resulting in an intensity threshold of 2 × 104. The peptide match feature and the exclude isotopes feature were enabled.