Progress in relative quantitative analysis of biological molecules with stable isotope labeling

Abstract

Biological molecules involve the whole life cycle of the organism. Quantitative analysis of biological molecules is a key issue for in depth understanding the molecular mechanism of these compounds, such as biosynthesis, signaling and response to biostress and abiostress. Although isotope dilution strategy is still adopted in many cases for precise quantification of target biological molecules for its overwhelming advantages, the isotope labeled internal standard set a hurdle on the way of its routine application. More and more stable isotope labeling approaches have been developed to label the target compounds efficiently during the past 10 years, especially in the field of quantitative proteomics and metabolomics. The proteins, peptides, acids and other biological molecules can be labeled by incorporated the light/heavy isotopes into organism with cell culture or growth on the isotope containing medium, or by derivatizing with isotope labeled reagents which can react with specific functional groups on biological molecules, such as SILAC, 15N/14N and iTRAQ et al, then the relative quantitative information will be obtained using chromatography/mass spectrometry (XC/MS). The advantages and disadvantages of these isotope labeling strategies are discussed in this review. The trend of relative quantification of biological molecules based on isotope labeling is toward efficiency, high throughput and low cost in the future, which is an important method for in depth understanding the molecular mechanism of the phenomenon of life.