Protein identification by nanopore peptide profiling

作者：Florian Leonardus Rudolfus Lucas, Roderick Corstiaan Abraham Versloot, Liubov Yakovlieva, Marthe T. C. Walvoort, Giovanni Maglia · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-021-26046-9 · 被引用次数：134 · 研究领域：Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies、Ion-surface interactions and analysis、Microfluidic and Capillary Electrophoresis Applications

Nanopores are single-molecule sensors used in nucleic acid analysis, whereas their applicability towards full protein identification has yet to be demonstrated. Here, we show that an engineered Fragaceatoxin C nanopore is capable of identifying individual proteins by measuring peptide spectra that are produced from hydrolyzed proteins. Using model proteins, we show that the spectra resulting from nanopore experiments and mass spectrometry share similar profiles, hence allowing protein fingerprinting. The intensity of individual peaks provides information on the concentration of individual peptides, indicating that this approach is quantitative. Our work shows the potential of a low-cost, portable nanopore-based analyzer for protein identification.