Development of an online two-dimensional nano-scale liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry method for improved chromatographic performance and hydrophobic peptide recovery

An online two-dimensional (2D) strong cation-exchange (SCX)/reversed-phase (RP) nano-scale liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (nanoLC/MS) method was developed for improved separation and hydrophobic peptide recovery. Sharper and more symmetric RP peaks were observed with the use of a "band re-focusing method", in which an analytical RP column with more hydrophobicity than the RP trap column was used in the system. To recover hydrophobic peptides still unreleased from the SCX column after a conventional salt step gradient due to hydrophobic interaction, a RP step gradient from 10% to 30% acetonitrile (ACN) was applied to the SCX column in the presence of a high salt concentration following the salt gradient. There were 301 unique hydrophobic E. coli peptides identified from the RP fractions. These peptides, which were 19% of all E. coli peptides identified from a 2D run, would not have been identified without the application of the RP gradient to the SCX column.     

Two-dimensional strong cation exchange/porous layer open tubular/mass spectrometry for ultratrace proteomic analysis using a 10 microm id poly(styrene- divinylbenzene) porous layer open tubular column with an on-line triphasic trapping column

This study expands the capabilities for ultratrace proteomic analysis of our previous work by incorporating on-line sample desalting using a triphasic (RP/strong cation exchange (SCX)/micro-SPE) trapping column connected to a 3.2 m x 10 microm id poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) (PS-DVB) porous layer open tubular (PLOT) column. To minimize extra sample handling steps, C18 RP packing was incorporated in the capillary tubing upstream of the SCX column for the on-line desalting. For the micro-SPE column, a 50 microm id PS-DVB monolithic column was positioned downstream of the SCX column. High-performance separation was achieved on the PLOT column at a mobile phase flow rate of 20 nL/min. The sensitivity and high resolution capability of the new multidimensional platform was evaluated using an in-gel tryptic digested sample of a cervical cancer (SiHa) cell line. For the injected amount of 1200 cells ( approximately 500 ng), over 2700 peptides covering greater than 850 unique proteins were identified from the triphasic SCX/PLOT/MS analysis of a single SDS gel section (>40 kDa). The 2-D LC/MS platform demonstrated good separation performance, such that more than 85% of the identified peptides were detected from only one salt fraction. In a triplicate analysis of the above >40 kDa gel section, 4497 peptides and 1209 unique proteins were identified when applying stringent filtering criteria, with a false-positive rate of 2.4%. When all three SDS-PAGE gel sections of the lysed SiHa cells were analyzed, 5047 peptides and 1857 unique proteins (false-positive rate 1.8%), including cancer-related proteins such as MAP kinases, were identified.     

Evaluation of the combinative application of SDS and sodium deoxycholate to the LC–MS‐based shotgun analysis of membrane proteomes

SDS and sodium deoxycholate (SDC) as two representative detergents have been widely used in LC–MS/MS‐based shotgun analysis of membrane proteomes. However, some inherent disadvantages limit their applications such as interference with MS analysis or their weak ability to disrupt membranes. To address this, the combinative application of SDS and SDC was developed and evaluated in our study, which comprehensively used the strong ability of SDS to lyse membranes and solubilize hydrophobic membrane proteins, and the high efficiencies of an optimized acetone precipitation method and SDC in sample clean‐up, protein recovery, and redissolution and digestion of precipitated proteins. The comparative study using a rat‐liver‐membrane‐enriched sample showed that, compared with other three commonly used methods including the filter‐aided sample preparation strategy, the combinative method not only increased the identified number of total proteins, membrane proteins, and integral membrane proteins by an average of 19.8, 23.9, and 24.8%, respectively, but also led to the identification of the highest number of matching peptides. All these results demonstrate that the method yielded better recovery and reliability in the identification of the proteins especially highly hydrophobic integral membrane proteins than the other three methods, and thereby has more potential in shotgun membrane proteomics.     

基于不同提取方法的水稻叶片蛋白质组的二维液相色谱分离及高分辨质谱分析

建立了酚法提取-二维液相色谱分离-高分辨质谱分析水稻叶片蛋白质组的方法。水稻叶片蛋白质经过酚法提取,酶解肽段脱盐后用离线反相-反相二维液相色谱分离,然后用线性离子阱/静电场轨道阱组合式高分辨质谱分析,共鉴定到2712种蛋白质。比较了液相色谱分离系统（一维液相色谱与二维液相色谱）和水稻叶片蛋白质提取方法（酚法、十二烷基硫酸钠法（SDS法）和三氯乙酸/丙酮法（TCA/丙酮法））对鉴定蛋白质数量的影响,结果表明：在二维液相色谱条件下,酚法、SDS法和TCA/丙酮法鉴定到的蛋白质数目为2712、2415和1914,分别是一维液相色谱条件下鉴定到的蛋白质数目的2.7、2.5和1.9倍。二维液相色谱条件下,酚法鉴定到的蛋白质数目比SDS法和TCA/丙酮法分别多297和798。与SDS法和TCA/丙酮法相比,酚法不但鉴定到的蛋白质数量多,而且能够鉴定到一些极端蛋白质,如酸性、碱性及高等电点的蛋白质。此外,对二维液相色谱条件下3种蛋白质提取方法提取到的蛋白质进行生物学功能分类,发现3种方法鉴定到的蛋白质的功能存在互补性,但酚法鉴定到的蛋白质功能种类最多。该法为水稻蛋白质组学研究提供了技术支撑,同时也为其他作物的蛋白质组学研究技术提供重要的借鉴。     

Multidimensional capillary array liquid chromatography and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem mass spectrometry for high-throughput proteomic analysis

A two-dimensional capillary array liquid chromatography system coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) was developed for high-throughput comprehensive proteomic analysis, in which one strong cation-exchange (SCX) capillary chromatographic column was used as the first separation dimension and 10 parallel reversed-phase liquid chromatographic (RPLC) capillary columns were used as the second separation dimension. A novel multi-channel interface was designed and fabricated for on-line coupling of the SCX to RPLC column array system. Besides the high resolution based on the combination of SCX and RPLC separation, the developed new system provided the most rapid two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) separation. Ten three-way micro-splitter valves used as stop-and-flow switches in transferring SCX fractions onto RPLC columns. In addition, the three-way valves also acted as mixing chambers of RPLC effluent with matrix. The system enables on-line mixing of the LC array effluents with matrix solution during the elution and directly depositing the analyte/matrix mixtures on MALDI plates from the tenplexed channels in parallel through an array of capillary tips. With the novel system, thousands of peptides were well separated and deposited on MALDI plates only in 150min for a complex proteome sample. Compared with common 2D-LC system, the parallel 2D-LC system showed about 10-times faster analytical procedure. In combination with a high throughput tandem time of flight mass spectrometry, the system was proven to be very effective for proteome analysis by analyzing a complicated sample, soluble proteins extracted from a liver cancer tissue, in which over 1202 proteins were identified.     

On-line strong cation exchange micro-HPLC-ESI-MS/MS for protein identification and process optimization

We have developed an on-line strong cation exchange (SCX)-ESI-MS/MS platform for the rapid identification of proteins contained in mixtures. This platform consists of a SCX precolumn followed by a nanoflow SCX column on-line with an electrospray ion trap mass spectrometer. We also used this platform to study the dynamics of peptide separation/extraction by SCX, in particular to understand the parameters affecting the performance of SCX in multidimensional chromatography. For example, we have demonstrated that the buffer typically used for tryptic digestion of protein mixtures can have a detrimental effect on the chromatographic behaviour of peptides during SCX separations, thereby affecting certain peptide quantitation approaches that rely on reproducible peptide fractionation. We have also demonstrated that band broadening results when a step (discontinuous) gradient approach is used to displace peptides from the SCX precolumn, reducing the separation power of SCX in multidimensional chromatography. In contrast, excellent chromatographic peak shapes are observed when a defined (continuous) gradient is used. Finally, using a tryptic digest of a protein extract derived from human K562 cells, we observed that larger molecular weight peptides are identified using this on-line SCX approach compared to the more conventional reverse phase (RP) LC/MS approach. Both methods used in tandem complement each other and can lead to a greater number of peptide identifications from a given sample.     

Microwave-assisted acid hydrolysis of proteins combined with liquid chromatography MALDI MS/MS for protein identification

Simple and efficient digestion of proteins, particularly hydrophobic membrane proteins, is of significance for comprehensive proteome analysis using the bottom-up approach. We report a microwave-assisted acid hydrolysis (MAAH) method for rapid protein degradation for peptide mass mapping and tandem mass spectrometric analysis of peptides for protein identification. It uses 25% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) aqueous solution to dissolve or suspend proteins, followed by microwave irradiation for 10 min. This detergent-free method generates peptide mixtures that can be directly analyzed by liquid chromatography (LC) matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) without the need of extensive sample cleanup. LC-MALDI MS/MS analysis of the hydrolysate from 5 microg of a model transmembrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin, resulted in almost complete sequence coverage by the peptides detected, including the identification of two posttranslational modification sites. Cleavage of peptide bonds inside all seven transmembrane domains took place, generating peptides of sizes amenable to MS/MS to determine possible sequence errors or modifications within these domains. Cleavage specificity, such as glycine residue cleavage, was observed. Terminal peptides were found to be present in relatively high abundance in the hydrolysate, particularly when low concentrations of proteins were used for MAAH. It was shown that these peptides could still be detected from MAAH of bacteriorhodopsin at a protein concentration of 1 ng/microl or 37 fmol/microl. To evaluate the general applicability of this method, it was applied to identify proteins from a membrane protein enriched fraction of cell lysates of human breast cancer cell line MCF7. With one-dimensional LC-MALDI MS/MS, a total of 119 proteins, including 41 membrane-associated or membrane proteins containing one to 12 transmembrane domains, were identified by MS/MS database searching based on matches of at least two peptides to a protein.     

Combination of FASP and fully automated 2D‐LC‐MS/MS allows in‐depth proteomic characterization of mouse zymogen granules

Zymogen granule (ZG) constituents play important roles in pancreatic injury and disease. In previous studies, proteomic analyses with rat zymogen granules were separated by two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis or one‐dimensional SDS–PAGE, followed by in‐gel tryptic digestion. In order to overcome the disadvantage of in‐gel digestion and to carry out further in‐depth proteomic analysis of the zymogen granules, in this study, by combining a filter‐aided sample preparation method and fully automated 2D‐LC‐MS/MS technique, 800 ZG proteins were identified with at least two unique peptides for each protein, 75% of which have not been previously reported. The identified proteins revealed broad diversity in protein identity and function. This is the largest dataset of ZG proteome, and also the first dataset of the mouse ZG proteome, which may help elucidate on the molecular architecture of ZGs and their functions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploiting the complementary nature of LC/MALDI/MS/MS and LC/ESI/MS/MS for increased proteome coverage

The goal of this work was to evaluate the improvement in proteome coverage of complex protein mixtures gained by analyzing samples using both LC/ESI/MS/MS and LC/MALDI/MS/MS. Parallel analyses of a single sample were accomplished by interfacing a Probot fractionation system with a nanoscale LC system. The Probot was configured to perform a post-column split such that a fraction (20%) of the column effluent was sent for on-line LC/ESI/MS/MS data acquisition, and the majority of the sample (80%) was mixed with a matrix solution and deposited onto the MALDI target plate. The split-flow approach takes advantage of the concentration sensitive nature of ESI and provides sufficient quantity of sample for MALDI/MS/MS. Hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometers were used to acquire LC/ESI/MS/MS data and LC/MALDI/MS/MS data from a tryptic digest of a preparation of mammalian mitochondrial ribosomes. The mass spectrometers were configured to operate in a data dependent acquisition mode in which precursor ions observed in MS survey scans are automatically selected for interrogation by MS/MS. This type of acquisition scheme maximizes the number of peptide fragmentation spectra obtained and is commonly referred to as shotgun analysis. While a significant degree of overlap (63%) was observed between the proteins identified in the LC/ESI/MS/MS and LC/MALDI/MS/MS data sets, both unique peptides and unique proteins were observed by each method. These results demonstrate that improved proteome coverage can be obtained using a combination of these ionization techniques.     

Proteome profile of the MCF7 cancer cell line: a mass spectrometric evaluation

The development of novel proteomic technologies that will enable the discovery of disease specific biomarkers is essential in the clinical setting to facilitate early diagnosis and increase survivability rates. We are reporting a shotgun two-dimensional (2D) strong cationic exchange/reversed-phase liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (SCX/RPLC/ESI-MS/MS) protocol for the analysis of proteomic constituents in cancerous cells. The MCF7 breast cancer cell line was chosen as a model system. A series of optimization steps were performed to improve the LC/MS experimental setup, sample preparation, data acquisition and database search protocols, and a data filtering strategy was developed to enable confident identification of a large number of proteins and potential biomarkers. This research has resulted in the identification of >2000 proteins using multiple filtering and p-value sorting. Approximately 1600-1900 proteins had p < 0.001, and, of these, approximately 60% were matched by >or=2 unique peptides. Alternatively, >99% of the proteins identified by >or=2 unique peptides had p < 0.001. When searching the data against a reversed database of proteins, the rate of false positive identifications was 0.1% at the peptide level and 0.4% at the protein level. The typical reproducibility in detecting overlapping proteins across replicate runs exceeded 90% for proteins matched by >or=2 unique peptides. According to their biological function, approximately 200 proteins were involved in cancer-relevant cellular processes, and over 25 proteins were previously described in the literature as putative cancer biomarkers, as they were found to be differentially expressed between normal and cancerous cell states. Among these, biomarkers such PCNA, cathepsin D, E-cadherin, 14-3-3-sigma, antigen Ki-67, TP53RK, and calreticulin were identified. These data were generated by subjecting to MS analysis approximately 42 microg of sample, analyzing 16 SCX peptide fractions, and interpreting approximately 55,000 MS2 spectra. Total MS time required for analysis was 40 h.     

Protein- versus peptide fractionation in the first dimension of two-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatography-matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem mass spectrometry for qualitative proteome analysis of tissue samples

The availability of robust and highly efficient separation methods represents a major requirement for proteome analysis. This study investigated the characteristics of two different gel-free proteomic approaches to the fractionation of proteolytic peptides and intact proteins, respectively, in a first separation dimension. Separation and mass spectrometric detection by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS/MS) were performed at the peptide level in both methods. Bottom-up analysis (BU) was carried out employing well established peptide fractionation in the first separation dimension by strong cation-exchange chromatography (SCX), followed by ion-pair reversed-phase chromatography (IP-RPC) in the second dimension. In the semi-top-down approach (STD), which involved intact protein fractionation in the first dimension, the separation mode in both dimensions was IP-RPC utilizing monolithic columns. Application of the two approaches to the proteome analysis of proteins extracted from a tumor tissue revealed that the BU method identified more proteins (1245 in BU versus 920 in STD) while STD analysis offered higher sequence coverage (14.8% in BU versus 17.5% in STD on average). The identification of more basic and larger proteins was slightly favored in the BU approach, most probably due to higher losses of these proteins during intact protein handling and separation in the STD method. A significant degree of complementarity was revealed by an approximately 33% overlap between one BU and STD replicate, while 33% each of the protein identifications were unique to both methods. In the STD method, peptides obtained upon digestion of the proteins contained in fractions of the first separation dimension covered a broad elution window in the second-dimension separation, which demonstrates a high degree of “pseudo-orthogonality” of protein and peptide separation by IP-RPC in both separation dimensions.     

Automatic internal calibration in liquid chromatography/Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry of protein digests

Accurately measured peptide masses can be used for large-scale protein identification from bacterial whole-cell digests as an alternative to tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) provided mass measurement errors of a few parts-per-million (ppm) are obtained. Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry (MS) routinely achieves such mass accuracy either with internal calibration or by regulating the charge in the analyzer cell. We have developed a novel and automated method for internal calibration of liquid chromatography (LC)/FTICR data from whole-cell digests using peptides in the sample identified by concurrent MS/MS together with ambient polydimethylcyclosiloxanes as internal calibrants in the mass spectra. The method reduced mass measurement error from 4.3 +/- 3.7 ppm to 0.3 +/- 2.3 ppm in an E. coli LC/FTICR dataset of 1000 MS and MS/MS spectra and is applicable to all analyses of complex protein digests by FTICRMS.     

The application of 2-D dual nanoscale liquid chromatography and triple quadrupole-linear ion trap system for the identification of proteins

2-D nanoscale LC combined with a triple quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometer was applied to the analysis of a complex peptide mixture. A 2-D dual nanoscale LC-MS/MS system was compared to a conventional one. Peptides were separated with a strong cation exchange (SCX) microcolumn in the first dimension and two C18 nanocolumns were used as second dimension. MS experiments were performed using information-dependent data acquisition, where two precursor ions were selected from an enhanced MS (EMS) or an enhanced multicharged ion (EMC) as survey scan. The major benefit of EMC instead of EMS was a two-fold reduction of the data file and a 15% increase of characterized proteins. The advantage of the 2-D dual nanoscale LC-MS/MS system versus the conventional 2-D nanoscale LC-MS/MS system was reflected in the significant increase of peptides which were successfully identified within the same time frame. The first factor contributing to this increase was that the mass spectrometer was collecting twice the number of relevant MS/MS data. The second factor is the use of twice the number of SCX salt fractions in the first dimension, allowing a better sample fractionation, thereby reducing the number of peptides transferred to the second chromatographic dimension per salt fraction.     

Acid-labile surfactant improves in-sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel protein digestion for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric peptide mapping

Mass spectrometry (MS) together with genome database searches serves as a powerful tool for the identification of proteins. In proteome analysis, mixtures of cellular proteins are usually separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) polyacrylamide gel-based two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) or one-dimensional gel electrophoresis (1-DE), and in-gel digested by a specific protease. In-gel protein digestion is one of the critical steps for sensitive protein identification by these procedures. Efficient protein digestion is required for obtaining peptide peaks necessary for protein identification by MS. This paper reports a remarkable improvement of protein digestion in SDS polyacrylamide gels using an acid-labile surfactant, sodium 3-[(2-methyl-2-undecyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl)methoxy]-1-propanesulfonate (ALS). Pretreatment of gel pieces containing protein spots separated by 2-DE with a small amount of ALS prior to trypsin digestion led to increases in the digested peptides eluted from the gels. Consistently, treatment of gel pieces containing silver-stained standard proteins and those separated from tissue extracts resulted in the detection of increased numbers of peptide peaks in spectra obtained by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS). Hence the present protocol with ALS provides a useful strategy for sensitive protein identification by MS.     

Multidimensional separation of tryptic peptides from human serum proteins using reversed‐phase,strong cation exchange,weak anion exchange,and fused‐core fluorinated stationary phases

Proteome profiling of crude serum is a challenging task due to the wide dynamic range of protein concentrations and the presence of high‐abundance proteins, which cover >90% of the total protein mass in serum. Peptide fractionation on strong cation exchange, weak anion exchange in the electrostatic repulsion hydrophilic interaction chromatography (ERLIC) mode, RP C₁₈ at pH 2.5 (low pH), fused‐core fluorinated at pH 2.5, and RP C₁₈ at pH 9.7 (high pH) stationary phases resulted in two to three times more identified proteins and three to four times more identified peptides in comparison with 1D nanoChip‐LC–MS/MS quadrupole TOF analysis (45 proteins, 185 peptides). The largest number of peptides and proteins was identified after prefractionation in the ERLIC mode due to the more uniform distribution of peptides among the collected fractions and on the RP column at high pH due to the high efficiency of RP separations and the complementary selectivity of both techniques to low‐pH RP chromatography. A 3D separation scheme combining ERLIC, high‐pH RP, and low‐pH nanoChip‐LC–MS/MS for crude serum proteome profiling resulted in the identification of 208 proteins and 1088 peptides with the lowest reported concentration of 11 ng/mL for heat shock protein 74.     

Accessible proteomics space and its implications for peak capacity for zero-, one- and two-dimensional separations coupled with FT-ICR and TOF mass spectrometry

The number and wide dynamic range of components found in biological matrixes present several challenges for global proteomics. In this perspective, we will examine the potential of zero-dimensional (0D), one-dimensional (1D), and two-dimensional (2D) separations coupled with Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) and time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) for the analysis of complex mixtures. We describe and further develop previous reports on the space occupied by peptides, to calculate the theoretical peak capacity available to each separations-mass spectrometry method examined. Briefly, the peak capacity attainable by each of the mass analyzers was determined from the mass resolving power (RP) and the m/z space occupied by peptides considered from the mass distribution of tryptic peptides from National Center for Biotechnology Information's (NCBI's) nonredundant database. Our results indicate that reverse-phase-nanoHPLC (RP-nHPLC) separation coupled with FT-ICR MS offers an order of magnitude improvement in peak capacity over RP-nHPLC separation coupled with TOF MS. The addition of an orthogonal separation method, strong cation exchange (SCX), for 2D LC-MS demonstrates an additional 10-fold improvement in peak capacity over 1D LC-MS methods. Peak capacity calculations for 0D LC, two different 1D RP-HPLC methods, and 2D LC (with various numbers of SCX fractions) for both RP-HPLC methods coupled to FT-ICR and TOF MS are examined in detail. Peak capacity production rates, which take into account the total analysis time, are also considered for each of the methods. Furthermore, the significance of the space occupied by peptides is discussed.     

Improvements in protein identification confidence and proteome coverage for human liver proteome study by coupling a parallel mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry analysis with multi-dimensional chromatography separation

Recently, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) technique has been shown to be complementary to electrospray ionization (ESI) with respect to the population of peptides and proteins that can be detected. In this study, we tried to hyphenate MALDI-TOF-TOF-MS and ESI-QUADRUPOLE-TOF-MS with a single 2D liquid chromatography for complicated protein sample analysis. The effluents of RPLC were split into two parts for the parallel MS/MS detection. After optimizing the operation conditions in LC separation and MS identification, a total of 1149 proteins were identified from the global lysate of normal human liver (NHL) tissue. Compared to the single MS/MS detection, the combined analysis increased the number of proteins identified (more than 25%) and enhanced the protein identification confidence. Proteins identified were categorized and analyzed based upon their cellular location, biological process and molecular function. The identification results demonstrated the application potential of a parallel MS/MS analysis coupled with multi-dimensional LC separation for complicated protein sample identification, especially for proteome analysis, such as human tissues or cells extracts.     

An investigation into the human serum "interactome"

The protein content of human serum is composed of a millieu of proteins from almost every type of cell and tissue within the body. The serum proteome has been shown to contain information that directly reflects pathophysiological states and represents an invaluable source of diagnostic information for a variety of different diseases. Unfortunately, the dynamic range of protein abundance, ranging from > mg/mL level to < pg/mL level, renders complete characterization of this proteome nearly impossible with current analytical methods. To study low-abundance proteins, which have potential value for clinical diagnosis, the high-abundant species, such as immunoglobulins and albumin, are generally eliminated as the first step in many analytical protocols. This step, however, is hypothesized to concomitantly remove proteins/peptides associated with the high-abundant proteins targeted for depletion. In this study, immunoprecipitation was combined with microcapillary reversed-phase liquid chromatography (microRPLC) coupled on-line with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to investigate the low-molecular-weight proteins/peptides that associate with the most abundant species in serum. By this targeted isolation of select highly abundant serum proteins, the associated proteins/peptides can be enriched and effectively identified by microRPLC-MS/MS. Among the 210 proteins identified, 73% and 67% were not found in previous studies of the low-molecular-weight or whole-serum proteome, respectively.     

Approaching complete peroxisome characterization by gas-phase fractionation

We examined the utility of gas-phase fractionation (GPF) in the m/z dimension to increase proteome coverage and reproducibility of peptide ion selection by direct microliquid chromatography/electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (microLC/ESI-MS/MS) analysis of the peptides produced by proteolytic digestion of unfractionated proteins from a yeast whole-cell lysate and in a peroxisomal membrane protein fraction derived from isolated yeast peroxisomes. We also investigated GPF in the relative ion intensity dimension and propose denoting the two types of GPF as GPF(m/z) and GPF(RI). Comparison of results of direct nuLC/ESI-MS/MS analysis of the unfractionated mixture of peptides from proteolysis of a yeast whole cell lysate by DD ion selection from 400-1800 m/z in triplicate and GPF(m/z) from 400-800, 800-1200 and 1200-1800 produced the following results: (i) 1.3 x more proteins were identified by GPF(m/z) for an equal amount of effort (i.e., 3 microLC/ESI-MS/MS) and (ii) proteins identified by GPF(m/z) had a lower average codon bias value. Use of GPF(RI) identified more proteins per m/z unit scanned than GPF(m/z) or triplicate analysis over a wide m/z range. After tryptic digestion of all the proteins from a discontinuous Nycodenz gradient fraction known to be enriched with yeast peroxisomal membrane proteins we detected 93% (38/41) of known peroxisomal proteins using GPF(m/z), but only 73% using a standard wide m/z range survey scan.