On-line Reversed-phase Liquid Chromatography Research Articles

Optimizing conditions in online RPLC × SFC for the analysis of complex samples containing neutral compounds: Solving injection issues

The online combination of reversed-phase liquid chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography (online RPLC × SFC) is an attractive technique for the characterization of complex samples containing neutral compounds as the two techniques are highly complementary, especially with a polar stationary phase in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC). However, the setup is challenging due to the presence of hydro-organic solvents in RPLC, which become injection solvent in SFC. In this study, numerous key experimental parameters were identified and found to have a major effect on peak shape under RPLC × SFC conditions. These parameters included the organic modifier in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), the co-solvent in SFC, the gradient conditions and the column ID in SFC, the configuration of the valve and finally, the injection volume in SFC that should be maximized. Acetonitrile (ACN) in RPLC, a mixture of ACN and methanol (MeOH) (50/50, v/v) in SFC, a minimum initial composition of 5% B in SFC, column IDs of 1.0 mm and 2.1 mm in RPLC and SFC respectively and flushing the interface loops with pure CO2 while adding the co-solvent after the valve, are all conditions that have been identified as perfectly suitable for online RPLC × SFC. They were successfully applied to the online RPLC × SFC separations of microalgae bio-oil samples. Despite unusual injection conditions, the peaks were symmetrical over the entire chromatogram, leading to a high separation power.

Comprehensive Characterization of Endogenous Phospholamban Proteoforms Enabled by Photocleavable Surfactant and Top-down Proteomics.

Top-down mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics has become a powerful tool for analyzing intact proteins and their associated post-translational modifications (PTMs). In particular, membrane proteins play critical roles in cellular functions and represent the largest class of drug targets. However, the top-down MS characterization of endogenous membrane proteins remains challenging, mainly due to their intrinsic hydrophobicity and low abundance. Phospholamban (PLN) is a regulatory membrane protein located in the sarcoplasmic reticulum and is essential for regulating cardiac muscle contraction. PLN has diverse combinatorial PTMs, and their dynamic regulation has significant influence on cardiac contractility and disease. Herein, we have developed a rapid and robust top-down proteomics method enabled by a photocleavable anionic surfactant, Azo, for the extraction and comprehensive characterization of endogenous PLN from cardiac tissue. We employed a two-pronged top-down MS approach using an online reversed-phase liquid chromatography tandem MS method on a quadrupole time-of-flight MS and a direct infusion method via an ultrahigh-resolution Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance MS. We have comprehensively characterized the sequence and combinatorial PTMs of endogenous human cardiac PLN. We have shown the site-specific localization of phosphorylation to Ser16 and Thr17 by MS/MS for the first time and the localization of S-palmitoylation to Cys36. Moreover, we applied our method to characterize PLN in disease and reported the significant reduction of PLN phosphorylation in human failing hearts with ischemic cardiomyopathy. Taken together, we have developed a streamlined top-down targeted proteomics method for comprehensive characterization of combinatorial PTMs in PLN toward better understanding the role of PLN in cardiac contractility.

On-line reversed-phase liquid chromatography x supercritical fluid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry: A powerful tool for the characterization of advanced biofuels

Bio-oils obtained by thermochemical or biochemical conversion of biomass represent a promising source of energy to complement fossil fuels, in particular for maritime or air transport for which the use of hydrogen or electricity appears complicated. As these bio-oils are very rich in water and heteroatoms, additional treatments are necessary before they can be used as biofuel. In order to improve the efficiency of these treatments, it is important to have a thorough knowledge of the composition of the bio-oil. The characterization of bio-oils is difficult because they are very complex mixtures with thousands of compounds covering a very wide range of molecular weight and polarity. Due to the high degree of orthogonality between the two chromatographic dimensions, the on-line combination of reversed-phase liquid chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography (on-line RPLC x SFC) can significantly improve the characterization of such complex matrices. The hyphenation was optimized by selecting, in SFC, the stationary phase, the co-solvent, the make-up solvent prior to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and the injection solvent. Additionally, a new interface configuration is described. Quality descriptors such as the occupation of the separation space, the peak shapes and the signal intensity were considered to determine the optimal conditions. The best results were obtained with bare silica, a co-solvent composed of acetonitrile and methanol (50/50, v/v), a make-up solvent composed of methanol (90%) and water (10%) with formic acid (0.1%), an addition of co-solvent through an additional pump for SFC separation in a 2.1 mm column, and an hydro-organic solvent as injection solvent. The optimized setup was used to analyze two microalgae bio-oils: the full bio-oil coming from hydrothermal liquefaction and Soxhlet extraction of microalgae, and the gasoline cut obtained after distillation of the full bio-oil. Results in on-line RPLC x SFC-qTOF were particularly interesting, with very good peak shapes and high reproducibility. Moreover, the high degree of orthogonality for microalgae bio-oils of RPLC and SFC was highlighted by the very large occupation of the separation space. Isomeric profiles of compound families could be obtained in RPLC x SFC-qTOF and many isomers not separated in SFC alone were separated in RPLC and vice versa, thus showing the complementarity of the two chromatographic techniques.

A detailed evaluation of the advantages and limitations of online RP-LC×HILIC compared to HILIC×RP-LC for phenolic analysis

The combination of hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) and reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP-LC) has proved effective in the LC × LC analysis of polyphenols due to the high degree of orthogonality associated with these separation modes for various classes of phenolic compounds. However, despite the growing number of such applications, HILIC is almost exclusively used as the first dimension (1D) separation mode, and RP-LC in the second dimension (2D). This is somewhat surprising in light of the potential advantages of swapping these separation modes. In this contribution, we present a detailed evaluation of the potential of online RP-LC × HILIC-MS for the analysis of phenolic compounds, comparing the performance of this system to the more established HILIC × RP-LC-MS configuration.Method development was performed using a predictive optimisation program, and fixed solvent modulation was employed to combat the solvent incompatibility between HILIC and RP-LC mobile phases. Red wine, rooibos tea, Protea and chestnut phenolic extracts containing a large diversity of phenolic compound classes were analysed by both HILIC × RP-LC- and RP-LC × HILIC-MS in order to compare the separation performance.Overall, the kinetic performance of HILIC × RP-LC was found to be clearly superior, with higher peak capacities and better resolution obtained for the majority of samples compared to RP-LC × HILIC analyses using similar column dimensions. Dilution of the 1D solvent combined with large volume injections proved insufficient to focus especially phenolic acids in the 2D HILIC separation, which resulted in severe 2D peak distortion for these compounds, and negatively impacted on method performance. On the other hand, a noteworthy improvement in the sensitivity of RP-LC × HILIC-MS analyses was observed due to higher ESI-MS response for the 2D HILIC mobile phase and greater sample loading capacity of the 1D RP-LC column, brought on by the high solubility of phenolic samples in aqueous solutions. As a result, a significantly higher number of compounds were detected in the RP-LC × HILIC-MS separations. These findings point to the potential advantage of RP-LC × HILIC as a complementary configuration to HILIC × RP-LC for phenolic analysis.

On-line 2D-RPLC x RPLC – HRMS to assess wastewater treatment in a pharmaceutical plant

Pharmaceutical effluents are complex media containing hundreds of compounds including active ingredients, intermediate products and unknown impurities. Bringing an industrial wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) into compliance with European directives requires a thorough analysis of the effluent. In this study, we demonstrate how online comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (on-line LC × LC) hyphenated to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) can be a powerful analytical methodology to monitoring the outlet water, by analysing the content of known molecules while characterizing unknown compounds. Reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) was used in both dimensions, with a penta-fluoro-phenyl silica-based column at neutral pH in the first dimension (1D) and a C18 column at acidic pH in the second one (2D). The conditions were optimized for a total analysis time of 60 min. The variability of both retention times and peak areas was evaluated. The average standard deviation on retention times was found to be less than 0.1 s in 2D. The relative standard deviation on peak area was about 7% for run-to-run analysis. This analytical approach, applied to the pharmaceutical effluents before (inlet) and after (outlet) wastewater treatment permitted to detect 240 compounds. These included 27 priority pharmaceutical products, 8 of which were of very high priority and their concentrations could be compared to target values. The comparison of 2D-LC and 1D-LC approaches clearly highlights the power of on-line RPLC x RPLC technique, which allows both targeted quantitative analysis and non-targeted qualitative analysis of pharmaceutical effluents.

Mapping Influenza-Induced Posttranslational Modifications on Histones from CD8+ T Cells.

T cell function is determined by transcriptional networks that are regulated by epigenetic programming via posttranslational modifications (PTMs) to histone proteins and DNA. Bottom-up mass spectrometry (MS) can identify histone PTMs, whereas intact protein analysis by MS can detect species missed by bottom-up approaches. We used a novel approach of online two-dimensional liquid chromatography-tandem MS with high-resolution reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), alternating electron transfer dissociation (ETD) and collision-induced dissociation (CID) on precursor ions to maximize fragmentation of uniquely modified species. The first online RPLC separation sorted histone families, then RPLC or weak cation exchange hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (WCX-HILIC) separated species heavily clad in PTMs. Tentative identifications were assigned by matching proteoform masses to predicted theoretical masses that were verified with tandem MS. We used this innovative approach for histone-intact protein PTM mapping (HiPTMap) to identify and quantify proteoforms purified from CD8 T cells after in vivo influenza infection. Activation significantly altered PTMs following influenza infection, histone maps changed as T cells migrated to the site of infection, and T cells responding to secondary infections had significantly more transcription enhancing modifications. Thus, HiPTMap identified and quantified proteoforms and determined changes in CD8 T cell histone PTMs over the course of infection.

Development of a 3D-LC/MS Workflow for Fast, Automated, and Effective Characterization of Glycosylation Patterns of Biotherapeutic Products.

Glycosylation is a common post-translational modification of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies produced in mammalian cells and is considered an important critical quality attribute (CQA), as it is known to impact efficacy, stability, half-life, and immunogenicity. For these reasons, glycosylation requires characterization and close monitoring during the manufacturing process. Due to the complexity of the glycosylation patterns, sophisticated analytical tools with high resolving power are required for the characterization of the glycoforms. This study describes, for the first time, the development and use of an online three-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (3D-HPLC/MS) approach for the monitoring of glycosylation patterns at the middle-up level. An immobilized IdeS-enzyme column was used in the first dimension for the digestion of mAbs in 10 min. Then, following an online reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) column reduction, the ≈25 kDa proteolytic fragments were analyzed using hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) coupled to MS. This novel analytical workflow demonstrated the ability to accurately profile glycosylated variants within a total run time of 95 min. To compare the performance of this analytical strategy with a conventional offline procedure (IdeS digestion x reduction-HILIC/MS), a proof of concept study using two mAbs is described here.

A Peptidomic Analysis of the Potential Comorbidity Biomarkers for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Alzheimer’s Disease

Objective: To investigate the potential comorbidity biomarkers for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: This is a randomized case-control study. There are three groups: 1) normal control group included 32 healthy elderly people in the hospital physical examination; 2) 30 patients with T2DM group; and 3) AD group has 28 cases. On-line reversed-phase liquid chromatography separation, tandem mass spectrometry analysis and iTRAQ quantification were used for identification of peptidomic analysis, then detection of three comorbidity biomarkers might be associated with T2DM and AD by ELISA. Results: The Peptidomic Analysis of the potential comorbidity biomarkers for T2DM and the AD group includes Osteopontin (OPN), Isoform 2 of Histone H2Btype 2-F and Histone H4. These potential comorbidity biomarkers for T2DM and the AD group are significantly increased than normal control group. OPN concentrations are 1.67 (0.13 - 2.63) mmol/L in the normal control group, 3.15 (1.51 - 5.35) mmol/L in the T2DM group, and 7.66 (3.55 - 15.38) mmol/L in the AD group. Histone H4 concentrations in three groups respectively are 0.21 ± 0.036 mmol/L (normal control), 0.21 ± 0.046 mmol/L (T2DM) and 0.21 ± 0.034 mmol/L(AD). Isoforms 2 of Histone H2Btype 2-F are 1.73 (0.12 - 2.60) mmol/L, 4.71 (1.26 - 6.84) mmol/L and 9.30 (0 - 20.8) mmol/Lin three groups respectively. Conclusion: The inflammatory mechanism may lead to an increase of histone content in the urine of AD and T2DM patients. Clinical test of these potential comorbidity biomarkers Histones and Osteopontin would be the diagnosis of comorbidity AD and T2DM.

Improved Sensitivity and Separations for Phosphopeptides using Online Liquid Chromotography Coupled with Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulations Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry.

Phosphoproteomics greatly augments proteomics and holds tremendous potential for insights into the modulation of biological systems for various disease states. However, numerous challenges hinder conventional methods in terms of measurement sensitivity, throughput, quantification, and capabilities for confident phosphopeptide and phosphosite identification. In this work, we report the first example of integratingstructures for lossless ion manipulations ion mobility-mass spectrometry (SLIM IM-MS) with online reversed-phase liquid chromatography (LC) to evaluate its potential for addressing the aforementioned challenges. A mixture of 51 heavy-labeled phosphopeptides was analyzed with a SLIM IM module having integrated ion accumulation and long-path separation regions. The SLIM IM-MS provided limits of detection as low as 50-100 pM (50-100 amol/μL) for several phosphopeptides, with the potential for significant further improvements. In addition, conventionally problematic phosphopeptide isomers could be resolved following an 18 m SLIM IM separation. The 2-D LC-IM peak capacity was estimated as ∼9000 for a 90 min LC separation coupled to an 18 m SLIM IM separation, considerably higher than LC alone and providing a basis for both improved identification and quantification, with additional gains projected with the future use of longer path SLIM IM separations. Thus, LC-SLIM IM-MS offers great potential for improving the sensitivity, separation, and throughput of phosphoproteomics analyses.

Site-Specific Characterization of d-Amino Acid Containing Peptide Epimers by Ion Mobility Spectrometry

Traditionally, the d-amino acid containing peptide (DAACP) candidate can be discovered by observing the differences of biological activity and chromatographic retention time between the synthetic peptides and naturally occurring peptides. However, it is difficult to determine the exact position of d-amino acid in the DAACP candidates. Herein, we developed a novel site-specific strategy to rapidly and precisely localize d-amino acids in peptides by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) analysis of mass spectrometry (MS)-generated epimeric fragment ions. Briefly, the d/l-peptide epimers were separated by online reversed-phase liquid chromatography and fragmented by collision-induced dissociation (CID), followed by IMS analysis. The epimeric fragment ions resulting from d/l-peptide epimers exhibit conformational differences, thus showing different mobilities in IMS. The arrival time shift between the epimeric fragment ions was used as criteria to localize the d-amino acid substitution. The utility of this strategy was demonstrated by analysis of peptide epimers with different molecular sizes, [d-Trp]-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, [d-Ala]-deltorphin, [d-Phe]-achatin-I, and their counterparts that contain all-l amino acids. Furthermore, the crustacean hyperglycemia hormones (CHHs, 8.5 kDa) were isolated from the American lobster Homarus americanus and identified by integration of MS-based bottom-up and top-down sequencing approaches. The IMS data acquired using our novel site-specific strategy localized the site of isomerization of l- to d-Phe at the third residue of the CHHs from the N-terminus. Collectively, this study demonstrates a new method for discovery of DAACPs using IMS technique with the ability to localize d-amino acid residues.

The Use of Ammonium Formate as a Mobile-Phase Modifier for LC-MS/MS Analysis of Tryptic Digests

A major challenge facing current mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics research is the large concentration range displayed in biological systems, which far exceeds the dynamic range of commonly available mass spectrometers. One approach to overcome this limitation is to improve online reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP-LC) separation methodologies. LC mobile-phase modifiers are used to improve peak shape and increase sample load tolerance. Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is a commonly used mobile-phase modifier, as it produces peptide separations that are far superior to other additives. However, TFA leads to signal suppression when incorporated with electrospray ionization (ESI), and thus, other modifiers, such as formic acid (FA), are used for LC-MS applications. FA exhibits significantly less signal suppression, but is not as effective of a modifier as TFA. An alternative mobile-phase modifier is the combination of FA and ammonium formate (AF), which has been shown to improve peptide separations. The ESI-MS compatibility of this modifier has not been investigated, particularly for proteomic applications. This work compares the separation metrics of mobile phases modified with FA and FA/AF and explores the use of FA/AF for the LC-MS analysis of tryptic digests. Standard tryptic-digest peptides were used for comparative analysis of peak capacity and sample load tolerance. The compatibility of FA/AF in proteomic applications was examined with the analysis of soluble proteins from canine prostate carcinoma tissue. Overall, the use of FA/AF improved online RP-LC separations and led to significant increases in peptide identifications with improved protein sequence coverage.

A new peptide retention time prediction method for mass spectrometry based proteomic analysis by a serial and parallel support vector machine model

The online reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) contributes a lot for the large scale mass spectrometry based protein identification in proteomics. Retention time (RT) as an important evidence can be used to distinguish the false positive/true positive peptide identifications. Because of the nonlinear concentration curve of organic phase in the whole range of run time and the interactions among peptides, the sequence based RT prediction of peptides has low accuracy and is difficult to generalize in practice, and thus is less effective in the validation of peptide identifications. A serial and parallel support vector machine (SP-SVM) method was proposed to characterize the nonlinear effect of organic phase concentration and the interactions among peptides. The SP-SVM contains a support vector regression (SVR) only for model training (named as p-SVR) and 4 SVM models (named as C-SVM, 1-SVR, s-SVR and n-SVR) for the RT prediction. After distinguishing the peptide chromatographic behavior by C-SVM, 1-SVR and s-SVR were used to predict the peptide RT specifically to improve the accuracy. Then the peptide RT was normalized by n-SVR to characterize the peptide interactions. The prediction accuracy was improved significantly by applying this method to the processing of the complex sample dataset. The coefficient of the determination between predictive and experimental RTs reaches 0. 95, the prediction error range was less than 20% of the total LC run time for more than 95% cases, and less than 10% of the total LC run time for more than 70% cases. The performance of this model reaches the best of known so far. More important, the SP-SVM method provides a framework to take into account the interactions among peptides in chromatographic separation, and its performance can be improved further by introducing new data processing and experiment strategy.

Classification and identification of the secretome of hepatocellular carcinoma cells by isoelectric focusing electrophoresis pre-fractionation strategy

Secretome (secreted proteins) has been arousing considerable attention because of its potential to develop novel biomarkers for the early detection and diagnosis of diseases. Like other proteome systems, a secretome generally consists of thousands of proteins with a wide dynamic range of abundance. The effective way to decrease the complexity of the analyte is to combine different prefractionation methods with orthogonal separation capabilities. The newly appeared OFFGEL fractionation system provides the ability to separate the peptides into discrete liquid fractions according to their differences in isoelectric point (pI), and has demonstrated high efficiency and repeatability for the analysis of the complex proteins. Here the OFFGEL fractionation system was evaluated for the separation of peptides digests from secreted proteins of hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HCC), using a 12-wells device encompassing the pH range of 3 - 10. In combination with the online reversed phase liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, peptides from the digestion of MHCC97L secreted proteins were separated and identified. Preliminary results showed that nearly 80% of the peptides identified were specific to one fraction, and 40% of the proteins were obtained from the fractions 1 -3 from the acid end. The average of peptide pI values distributed in each fraction is consistent with the theoretical pIs, and the pI distribution of the peptides focused on the low pH range showed a smaller deviation. Finally, 2 995 proteins were identified from secretome of MHCC97L cell lines. Thus the data show that the OFFGEL system provides a highly valuable tool to fractionate peptides from complex protein samples.

Analysis of free and esterified sterols in edible oils by online reversed phase liquid chromatography–gas chromatography (RPLC–GC) using the through oven transfer adsorption desorption (TOTAD) interface

An online reversed phase liquid chromatography-gas chromatography (RPLC-GC) method is proposed to quantify free, total and esterified sterols of edible oils. To determine free sterols the diluted oils are injected into the liquid chromatograph, where free sterols are separated from triglycerides and the sterol fraction is automatically transferred to the gas chromatograph to be analysed. To determine total sterols the samples were saponified with potassium hydroxide in ethanolic solution and the unsaponifiable fraction was extracted with diethyl ether. The extract was then analysed by RPLC-GC, avoiding the laborious thin layer chromatography step used in the Official European Union (EU) Method. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) from the absolute peak area varied from 7.6% to 15.8%. Limits of detection (LODs) were less than 8.5 mg/kg. No variability in retention time was observed. The method was applied to the determination of total sterols in edible oil samples and the results were compared with those obtained with the Official EU Method. Good agreement was found between both methods, except in the case of campesterol.

Multiple‐stage mass spectrometry analysis of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether, bisphenol F diglycidyl ether and their derivatives

The fragmentation of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE), bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (BFDGE) and their derivatives was studied by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Multiple-stage mass spectrometry and accurate mass measurements were combined to establish the fragmentation pathways. BADGEs and BFDGEs tend to form ammonium adducts under electrospray conditions which fragmented easily. The fragmentation of [M+NH(4)](+) for BADGEs started with the cleavage of the phenyl-alkyl bond, which was followed by the α-cleavage of the ether group to generate the characteristic product ions at m/z 135, [C(9)H(11)O](+), and m/z 107, [C(7)H(7)O](+). The fragmentation of the BFDGE isomer mixtures was studied by on-line reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to multiple-stage mass spectrometry (LC/MS(n)). Information obtained from product ion spectra for each BFDGE isomer and its comparison with the fragmentation pathway of BADGE allowed each isomer and the chromatographic elution order to be identified.

Development of a method based on on-line reversed phase liquid chromatography and gas chromatography coupled by means of an adsorption–desorption interface for the analysis of selected chiral volatile compounds in methyl jasmonate treated strawberries

A method based on the use of the through oven transfer adsorption–desorption (TOTAD) interface in on-line coupling between reversed phase liquid chromatography and gas chromatography (RPLC–GC) for the determination of chiral volatile compounds was developed. In particular, the method was applied to the study of the influence of methyl jasmonate (MJ) treatment on the production and enantiomeric composition of selected aroma compounds in strawberry. The compounds studied were ethyl 2-methylbutanoate, linalool and 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2 H)-furanone (i.e. furaneol), which were examined on days 3, 6 and 9 after treatment. The method developed resulted in relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 21.6%, 8.1% and 9.8% and limits of detection (LD) of 0.04, 0.07 and 0.02 mg/l for ethyl 2-methylbutanoate, linalool and furaneol, respectively. The application of the RPLC–TOTAD–GC method allowed higher levels of ethyl 2-methylbutanoate, linalool and furaneol to be detected, particularly after 9 days of treatment. Besides, MJ demonstrated to affect the enantiomeric distribution of ethyl 2-methylbutanoate. On the contrary, the enantiomeric composition of linalool and furaneol kept constant in both control and MJ-treated strawberries throughout the study. These results are discussed.

Enrichment and characterization of histones by two-dimensional hydroxyapatite/reversed-phase liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

Here we report a novel two-dimensional liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (2D LC–MS) method that combines offline hydroxyapatite (HA) chromatography with online reversed-phase liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (HA/RP LC–MS). The 2D LC–MS method was used to enrich and characterize histones and their posttranslational modifications. The 2D HA/RP LC–MS approach separates histones based on their relative binding affinity to DNA and relative hydrophobicity. HA/RP separations showed improvement in the number of histone isoforms detected as compared with one-dimensional RP LC–MS of acid-extracted histones. The improved histone fractionation resulted in better detection of lower abundant histone variants as well as their posttranslationally modified isoforms. Histones eluted from the HA/RP in the following order: H1, H2A/H2B heterodimers followed by H3/H4 heterotetramers, as predicted from their spatial organization in nucleosomes for binding affinity to DNA. Comparison between HA-purified and acid-extracted histones revealed similar histone profiles with the exception that the HA fractions showed a greater number of H1 isoforms. Two elution conditions were also examined: batch elution and salt gradient elution. Although both elution techniques were able to fractionate the histones sufficiently, the salt gradient approach has the most potential for purification of selected histone isoforms.

Analysis of Pesticides in Nuts by Online Reversed-Phase Liquid Chromatography−Gas Chromatography Using the Through-Oven Transfer Adsorption/Desorption Interface

A new method to determine pesticide residues in nuts is presented, in which the pesticides are extracted from samples with a small amount of ethyl acetate and anhydrous sodium sulfate. No additional cleanup or concentration steps are necessary. The extract is directly injected into the high-pressure liquid chromatograph, where preseparation of the pesticide residues from other components coextracted from the nuts is carried out using methanol/water as the eluent. The selected liquid chromatography fraction containing the pesticides is automatically transferred to the gas chromatograph using the through-oven transfer adsorption/desorption interface. The calculated limits of detection for each pesticide varied from 0.1 to 61.3 microg/kg. The repeatabilities of the analysis and the overall procedure (extraction and analysis) were satisfactory. No variations in the retention time were observed. The method was applied to the analysis of pistachio nut, peanut, walnut, hazelnut, and sunflower seed.

Automated determination of pesticide residues in olive oil by on-line reversed-phase liquid chromatography–gas chromatography using the through oven transfer adsorption desorption interface with electron-capture and nitrogen–phosphorus detectors operating simultaneously

A rapid method for the multiresidue analysis of pesticides in olive oil is presented. Pesticides are analyzed by on-line coupling reversed-phase liquid chromatography–gas chromatography using the through oven transfer adsorption desorption (TOTAD) interface with subsequent simultaneous electron-capture and nitrogen–phosphorus detection by post-column splitter. An autosampler is employed and the olive oil is simply filtered before the chromatographic analysis. Organophosphorus, organochlorine and triazine pesticides are determined in one run. The limits of detection are below the required maximum residue levels and calibration curves are linear in the range tested. Repeatabilities (intra-day and inter-days) are good. The method was satisfactory applied to the routine analysis of numerous olive oil samples.

Proteomic Profiling of Intact Proteins Using WAX-RPLC 2-D Separations and FTICR Mass Spectrometry

We investigated the combination of weak anion exchange (WAX) fractionation and on-line reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) separation using a 12 T FTICR mass spectrometer for the detection of intact proteins from a Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 cell lysate. This work aimed at optimizing intact protein detection for profiling proteins at a level that incorporates their modification state. A total of 715 intact proteins were detected, and the combined results from the WAX fractions and the unfractionated cell lysate were aligned using LC-MS features to facilitate protein abundance measurements. Protein identifications and post-translational modifications were assigned for approximately 10% of the detected proteins by comparing intact protein mass measurements to proteins identified in peptide MS/MS analysis of an aliquot of the same fraction. Intact proteins were also detected for S. oneidensis lysates obtained from cells grown on 13C-, 15N-depleted media under aerobic and sub-oxic conditions. The strategy can be readily applied for measuring differential protein abundances and provides a platform for high-throughput selection of biologically relevant targets for further characterization.