Highly specific enrichment of phosphopeptides by zirconium dioxide nanoparticles for phosphoproteome analysis

Large-scale characterization of phosphoproteins requires highly specific methods for the purification of phosphopeptides because of the low abundance of phosphoproteins and substoichiometry of phosphorylation. A phosphopeptide enrichment method using ZrO2 nanoparticles is presented. The high specificity of this approach was demonstrated by the isolation of phosphopeptides from the digests of model phosphoproteins. The strong affinity of ZrO2 nanoparticles to phosphopeptides enables the specific enrichment of phosphopeptides from a complex peptide mixture in which the abundance of phosphopeptides is two orders of magnitude lower than that of nonphosphopeptides. Superior selectivity of ZrO2 nanoparticles for the enrichment of phosphorylated peptides than that of conventional immobilized metal affinity chromatography was observed. Femtomole phosphopeptides from digestion products could be enriched by ZrO2 nanoparticles and can be well detected by MALDI mass spectrometric analysis. ZrO2 nanoparticles were further applied to selectively isolate phosphopeptides from the tryptic digestion of mouse liver lysate for phosphoproteome analysis by nanoliter LC MS/MS (nano-LC-MS/MS) and MS/MS/MS. A total of 248 defining phosphorylation sites and 140 phosphorylated peptides were identified by manual validation using a series of rigid criteria.     

Titania as a chemo-affinity support for the column-switching HPLC analysis of phosphopeptides: application to the characterization of phosphorylation sites in proteins by combination with protease digestion and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

A method for the determination of phosphorylation sites in phosphoproteins based on column-switching high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been developed. The HPLC system consisted of a titania precolumn for the selective adsorption of phosphopeptides, an anion-exchange analytical column and a UV detector (215 nm). Rabbit muscle phosphorylase a (RPa) and porcine stomach pepsin (PSP) were tested as model phosphoproteins. After protease digestion, the resulting phosphopeptides were successfully isolated by column-switching HPLC. The phosphopeptide fractions were analyzed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry with a positive or negative ion mode after purification by reversed-phase HPLC. Pseudo-molecular ion peaks corresponding to Gln-Ile-Ser(p)-Val-Arg (MW 681.7) and Glu-Ala-Thr-Ser(p)-Gln-Glu-Leu (MW 856.8) were detected from the tryptic digest of RPa and chymotryptic digest of PSP, respectively, which agreed with the theoretically expected phosphopeptide fragments.     

Comparative analysis of salt‐responsive phosphoproteins in maize leaves using Ti4+‐IMAC enrichment and ESI‐Q‐TOF MS

Salinity is one of the most common abiotic stresses encountered by plants. Reversible protein phosphorylation is involved in plant defense processes against salinity stress. Here, we performed global phosphopeptide mapping through enrichment by our synthesized PVA‐phosphate‐Ti⁴⁺ IMAC coupled with subsequent identification by ESI‐Q‐TOF MS. A total of 104 peptide sequences containing 139 phosphorylation sites were determined from 70 phosphoproteins of the control leaves. In contrast, 124 phosphopeptides containing 143 phosphorylated sites from 92 phosphoproteins were identified in salt‐stressed maize leaves. Compared with the control, 47 proteins were phosphorylated, 25 were dephosphorylated, and 45 overlapped. Among the 72 differential phosphoproteins, 35 were known salt stress response proteins and the rest had not been reported in the literature. To dissect the differential phosphorylation, gene ontology annotations were retrieved for the differential phosphoproteins. The results revealed that cell signaling pathway members such as calmodulin and 14‐3‐3 proteins were regulated in response to 24‐h salt stress. Multiple putative salt‐responsive phosphoproteins seem to be involved in the regulation of photosynthesis‐related processes. These results may help to understand the salt‐inducible phosphorylation processes of maize leaves.     

Analysis of protein phosphorylation by mass spectrometry

Phosphorylation is one of the most frequently occurring post-translational modifications in proteins. In eukaryotic cells, protein phosphorylation on serine, threonine and tyrosine residues plays a crucial role as a modulator of protein function. A comprehensive analysis of protein phosphorylation involves the identification of the phosphoproteins, the exact localization of the residues that are phosphorylated and the quantitation of phosphorylation. In this short review we will summarize and discuss the methodologies currently available for the analysis and full characterization of phosphoproteins with special attention at mass spectrometry-based techniques. In particular, we will discuss affinity-based purification of phosphopeptides coupled to MALDI-TOF analysis, their detection using mass mapping and precursor ion scan, identification of modified sites by MS/MS and quantitation analysis     

Automated phosphoproteome analysis for cultured cancer cells by two-dimensional nanoLC-MS using a calcined titania/C18 biphasic column.

We have developed an on-line automated system for phosphoproteome analysis using titania-based phosphopeptide enrichment followed by nanoLC-MS/MS. Titania beads were prepared by calcination of commercial chromatographic titania beads at 800 degrees C to convert the crystalline structure. The obtained rutile-form titania exhibited higher selectivity in phosphopeptide enrichment than commercial titania, even in the absence of a competitive chelating reagent for non-phosphopeptides. For phosphoproteome analysis of human cervical cancer HeLa cells, tryptic digests of the cell extracts were directly injected into this on-line system, and 696 non-redundant phosphopeptides with 671 unambiguously determined phosphorylation sites, derived from 512 phosphoproteins, were successfully identified. This is the first successful application of an on-line automated phosphoproteome analysis system to complex biological samples.     

Chemical dephosphorylation for identification of multiply phosphorylated peptides and phosphorylation site determination

We have developed a novel strategy to improve the efficiency of identification of multiply phosphorylated peptides isolated by hydroxy acid modified metal oxide chromatography (HAMMOC). This strategy consists of alkali‐induced chemical dephosphorylation (beta‐elimination reaction) of phosphopeptides isolated by HAMMOC prior to analysis by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). This approach identified 1.9‐fold more multiply phosphorylated peptides than the conventional approach without beta‐elimination from a digested mixture of three standard phosphoproteins. In addition, the accuracy of phosphorylation site determination in synthetic phosphopeptides was significantly improved. Finally, we applied this approach to a cell lysate. By combining this dephosphorylation approach with the conventional approach, we successfully identified 1649 unique phosphopeptides, including 325 multiply phosphorylated phosphopeptides, from 200 µg of cultured Arabidopsis cells. These results indicate that chemical dephosphorylation prior to LC/MS analysis increases the efficiency of identification of multiply phosphorylated peptides, as well as the accuracy of phosphorylation site determination. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Phosphoproteome analysis of human liver tissue by long‐gradient nanoflow LC coupled with multiple stage MS analysis

Reversible protein phosphorylation plays a critical role in liver development and function. Comprehensively cataloging the phosphoproteins and their phosphorylation sites in human liver tissue will facilitate the understanding of physiological and pathological mechanisms of liver. Owing to lacking of efficient approach to fractionate phosphopeptides, nanoflow‐RPLC with long‐gradient elution was applied to reduce the complexity of the phosphopeptides in this study. Two approaches were performed to further improve the coverage of phosphoproteome analysis of human liver tissue. In one approach, ten‐replicated long‐gradient LC‐MS/MS runs were performed to analyze the enriched phosphopeptides, which resulted in the localization of 1080 phosphorylation sites from 495 proteins. In another approach, proteins from liver tissue were first fractionated by SDS‐PAGE and then long‐gradient LC‐MS/MS analysis was performed to analyze the phosphopeptides derived from each fraction, which resulted in the localization of 1786 phosphorylation sites from 911 proteins. The two approaches showed the complementation in phosphoproteome analysis of human liver tissue. Combining the results of the two approaches, identification of 2225 nonredundant phosphorylation sites from 1023 proteins was obtained. The confidence of phosphopeptide identifications was strictly controlled with false discovery rate (FDR)≤1% by a MS²/MS³ target‐decoy database search approach. Among the localized 2225 phosphorylated sites, as many as 70.07% (1559 phosphorylated sites) were also reported by others, which confirmed the high confidence of the sites determined in this study. Considering the data acquired from low accuracy mass spectrometer and processed by a conservative MS²/MS³ target‐decoy approach, the number of localized phosphorylation sites obtained for human liver tissue in this study is quite impressive.     

基于TMT10-plex等量标记结合SMOAC富集磷酸肽的定量磷酸化蛋白质组性能评价

探索并建立了一种快速、 简便且高通量定量磷酸化蛋白质组的策略, 即采用连续互补的磷酸化富集方法SMOAC(Sequential enrichment of metal oxide affinity chromatography)结合TMT(Tandem mass tag)标记技术定量磷酸化蛋白质组学. 以3例经紫草素处理的及3例正常的人肝癌 HepG2 细胞为实验材料, 经Trypsin酶解后的肽段用TMT10-plex试剂进行等量标记, 标记肽段先经TiO₂富集, 收集包含磷酸化肽段的洗脱液, 接着用次氮基三醋酸铁(Fe-NTA)对TiO₂的流穿液和清洗液进行二次富集, 再次收集包含磷酸化肽段的洗脱液. 整个实验流程做2组, 对其中一组的2次洗脱液分别分析, 另一组的2次洗脱液合并分析. 在SMOAC的2次洗脱液合并分析中鉴定到4263个磷酸化蛋白上超过13000条磷酸化肽, 富集特异性>97%, 其中被定量的磷酸化蛋白为3848个, 占总鉴定量的90%以上. 研究结果表明, SMOAC 能够有效提高磷酸化肽段的鉴定效率, 且能与TMT等量标记试剂结合, 实现对少量蛋白样品的磷酸化蛋白定量分析.     

Isolation of phosphopeptides using zirconium-chlorophosphonazo chelate-modified silica nanoparticles

Due to the low abundance of phosphoproteins and substoichiometry of phosphorylation, the elucidation of protein phosphorylation requires highly specific materials for isolation of phosphopeptides from biological samples prior to mass spectrometric analysis. In this study, chlorophosphonazo type derivatives of chromotropic acid including p-hydroxychlorophosphonazo (HCPA) and chlorophosphonazo I (CPA I), traditionally used in the photometric determination of transition metal ions, have been employed as chelating ligands in the preparation of novel affinity materials for phosphopeptide enrichment. The chromogenic reagents of HCPA and CPA I were chemically modified on the surface of silica nanoparticles, and the functionalized materials were charged with zirconium ions through the strong complexation between chelating ligands and Zr(4+). The obtained zirconium-chlorophosphonazo chelate-modified silica nanoparticles (Zr-HCPA-SNPs and Zr-CPA I-SNPs) were applied to the selective enrichment of phosphopeptides, followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) analysis. The purification procedures were optimized using α-casein digest at first, and then the performance of these two affinity materials for efficient and specific enrichment of phosphopeptides was evaluated with the tryptic digests of standard proteins (α-casein, β-casein, ovalbumin and bovine serum albumin). It is found that Zr-HCPA-SNPs are superior to Zr-CPA I-SNPs in phosphopeptide enrichment. Using Zr-HCPA-SNPs to trap phosphopeptides in α-casein digest, the detection limit was close to 50fmol based on MALDI-TOF MS analysis. Finally, Zr-HCPA-SNPs were used to directly isolate phosphopeptides from diluted human serum of healthy, diabetes and hypertension persons, respectively. Our results show that the constitution and level of phosphopeptides are remarkably different among the three groups, which indicate the powerful potentials of Zr-HCPA-SNPs in disease diagnosis and biomarker screening.     

Development of an integrated chromatographic system for on-line digestion and characterization of phosphorylated proteins

The development of an integrated chromatographic system for complete phosphoprotein analysis is described. The digestion of phosphoproteins with trypsin- or pronase-based monolithic bioreactors is carried out on-line with selective enrichment on a TiO(2) trap and separation of the produced phosphopeptides by reversed-phase liquid chromatography-multiple mass spectrometry (RPLC/MS(n)). A detailed study on the selective extraction of peptides with different degrees of phosphorylation on TiO(2) cartridges is discussed. This analytical strategy has been optimized using beta-casein as a standard phosphoprotein, and then applied to the identification of phosphorylation sites in insulin-like grow factor-binding protein 1 (IGFBP-1) isolated from amniotic fluid.     

Profiling Phosphoproteome Landscape in Circulating Extracellular Vesicles from Microliters of Biofluids through Functionally Tunable Paramagnetic Separation

Many biological processes are regulated through dynamic protein phosphorylation. Monitoring disease-relevant phosphorylation events in circulating biofluids is highly appealing but also technically challenging. We introduce here a functionally tunable material and a strategy, extracellular vesicles to phosphoproteins (EVTOP), which achieves one-pot extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolation, extraction, and digestion of EV proteins, and enrichment of phosphopeptides, with only a trace amount of starting biofluids. EVs are efficiently isolated by magnetic beads functionalized with Ti^IV ions and a membrane-penetrating peptide, octa-arginine R₈⁺, which also provides the hydrophilic surface to retain EV proteins during lysis. Subsequent on-bead digestion concurrently converts EVTOP to Ti^IV ion-only surface for efficient enrichment of phosphopeptides for phosphoproteomic analyses. The streamlined, ultra-sensitive platform enabled us to quantify 500 unique EV phosphopeptides with only a few μL of plasma and over 1200 phosphopeptides with 100 μL of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). We explored its clinical application of monitoring the outcome of chemotherapy of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) patients with a small volume of CSF, presenting a powerful tool for broad clinical applications.     

A novel strategy for phosphopeptide enrichment using lanthanide phosphate co-precipitation

Reversible phosphorylation of proteins is a common theme in the regulation of important cellular functions such as growth, metabolism, and differentiation. The comprehensive understanding of biological processes requires the characterization of protein phosphorylation at the molecular level. Although, the number of cellular phosphoproteins is relatively high, the phosphorylated residues themselves are generally of low abundance due to the sub-stoichiometric nature. However, low abundance of phosphopeptides and low degree of phosphorylation typically necessitates isolation and concentration of phosphopeptides prior to mass spectrometric analysis. In this study, we used trivalent lanthanide ions (LaCl(3), CeCl(3), EuCl(3), TbCl(3), HoCl(3), ErCl(3), and TmCl(3)) for phosphopeptide enrichment and cleaning-up. Due to their low solubility product, lanthanide ions form stable complexes with the phosphate groups of phosphopeptides and precipitate out of solution. In a further step, non-phosphorylated compounds can easily be removed by simple centrifugation and washing before mass spectrometric analysis using Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation-time of flight. The precipitation method was applied for the isolation of phosphopeptides from standard proteins such as ovalbumin, α-casein, and β-casein. High enrichment of phosphopeptides could also be achieved for real samples such as fresh milk and egg white. The technology presented here represents an excellent and highly selective tool for phosphopeptide recovery; it is easily applicable and shows several advantages as compared with standard approaches such as TiO(2) or IMAC.     

Increasing phosphoproteomic coverage through sequential digestion by complementary proteases

Protein phosphorylation is a reversible post-translational modification known to regulate protein function, subcellular localization, complex formation, and protein degradation. Detailed phosphoproteomic information is critical to kinomic studies of signal transduction and for elucidation of cancer biomarkers, such as in non-small-cell lung adenocarcinoma, where phosphorylation is commonly dysregulated. However, the collection and analysis of phosphorylation data remains a difficult problem. The low concentrations of phosphopeptides in complex biological mixtures as well as challenges inherent in their chemical nature have limited phosphoproteomic characterization and some phosphorylation sites are inaccessible by traditional workflows. We developed a sequential digestion method using complementary proteases, Glu-C and trypsin, to increase phosphoproteomic coverage and supplement traditional approaches. The sequential digestion method is more productive than workflows utilizing only Glu-C and we evaluated the orthogonality of the sequential digestion method relative to replicate trypsin-based analyses. Finally, we demonstrate the ability of the sequential digestion method to access new regions of the phosphoproteome by comparison to existing public phosphoproteomic databases. Our approach increases coverage of the human lung cancer phosphoproteome by accessing both new phosphoproteins and novel phosphorylation site information.     

Specific capture of phosphopeptides on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry targets modified by magnetic affinity nanoparticles

Specific capture of phosphopeptides from protein digests is a critical step for identification of phosphoproteins by mass spectrometry. In this study, we report a novel phosphopeptide-capture approach based on the specific interaction of phosphopeptides with a stainless steel target modified with magnetic affinity nanoparticles. The modification which was carried out by loading the suspension of nanoparticles into sample wells of the target did not require any pretreatment procedure to the target and did not involve chemical binding reactions. To isolate phosphopeptides, digests were loaded into the wells of the modified target for 10 min incubation, followed by rinsing with washing buffer to remove unbound species; matrix was then added to the captured phosphopeptides prior to analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS). Capturing the phosphopeptides on the modified target simplified significantly analytical operations and reduced sample loss. This approach has been applied to solution digests of alpha-casein, beta-casein, and a mixture of five proteins; a number of phosphopeptides were confidently detected. Phosphopeptides from digests of 10 fmol beta-casein could be isolated and detected by MALDI-TOFMS with this method. In addition, this approach has been applied successfully to the isolation of phosphopeptides from in-gel digestive products of sub-pmol phosphoproteins after separation by sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).     

Zirconium arsenate-modified magnetic nanoparticles: preparation, characterization and application to the enrichment of phosphopeptides

Phosphorylation, one of the most important post-translational modifications of protein, plays a crucial role in a large number of biological processes. Large-scale identification of protein phosphorylation by mass spectrometry is still a challenging task because of the low abundance of phosphopeptides and sub-stoichiometry of phosphorylation. In this work, a novel strategy based on the specific affinity of zirconium arsenate to the phosphate group has been developed for the effective enrichment of phosphopeptides. Zirconium arsenate-modified magnetic nanoparticles (ZrAs-Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2)) were prepared by covalent immobilization of zirconium arsenate on Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) magnetic nanoparticles under mild conditions, and characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The prepared ZrAs-Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) was applied for the selective enrichment of phosphopeptides from the digestion mixture of phosphoproteins and bovine serum albumin (BSA). Our results demonstrated that the ZrAs-Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) magnetic nanoparticles possess higher selectivity for phosphopeptides and better capture capability towards multiply-phosphorylated peptides than commercial zirconium dioxide (ZrO(2)), which has been widely employed for the enrichment of phosphopeptides. In addition, endogenous phosphopeptides from human serum can be effectively captured by ZrAs-Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) magnetic nanoparticles. It is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, in which the zirconium arsenate-modified magnetic nanoparticles were successfully applied to the enrichment of phosphopeptides, which offers the potential application of this new material in phosphoproteomics study.     

基于亲和色谱的肺癌细胞磷酸化蛋白质组研究及其应用

磷酸化是蛋白质翻译后修饰的重要形式之一,其异常往往会导致细胞内信号通路的紊乱和疾病的发生。固定化金属离子亲和色谱(IMAC)是磷酸化肽段的高效富集技术,在磷酸化蛋白质组研究方面应用广泛。该研究以金属钛离子(Ti⁴⁺)螯合IMAC材料(Ti⁴⁺-IMAC)为载体,进行磷酸化肽段富集。比较了10 μm Ti⁴⁺-IMAC通过振荡法和固相萃取法(SPE)富集磷酸肽的效果,发现振荡法可以富集到更多的磷酸肽;对比了两种尺寸(10 μm和30 μm)Ti⁴⁺-IMAC在磷酸化肽段富集中的差异,发现小尺寸材料富集效果更佳。进一步采用优化的策略比较了不同转移能力肺癌细胞的磷酸化蛋白质组,免标记定量蛋白质组学结果表明,优化的Ti⁴⁺-IMAC方法可以从正常的肺成纤维细胞MRC5、低转移肺癌细胞95C和高转移肺癌细胞95D中分别鉴定到510、863和1108种磷酸化蛋白质,其中317种为3组所共有。该研究共鉴定到1268种磷酸化蛋白质上的7560个磷酸化位点,其中1130个为差异磷酸化位点,文献报道显示部分异常表达的激酶与癌症转移密切相关。通过生信对比分析发现,异常表达的磷酸化蛋白质主要与细胞侵袭、迁移和死亡等细胞迁移方面的功能有关。通过优化磷酸化肽富集策略,初步阐明了磷酸化蛋白质网络的异常与肺癌转移之间的相关性,该方法有望用于肺癌进展相关的磷酸化位点、磷酸化蛋白质及其信号通路研究。     

基于强阳离子交换色谱与等电聚焦的磷酸化蛋白质组学分离策略比较

比较分析了强阳离子交换(SCX)与等电聚焦(IPG-IEF)技术在磷酸化蛋白质组学中的应用。采用3种标准磷酸化蛋白对SCX与IPG-IEF两种技术对磷酸化肽段富集的有效性进行考察。以HepG2细胞为复杂样本,考察SCX与IPG-IEF在实际样本中的应用情况。对SCX与IPG-IEF技术在18O标记的磷酸化蛋白质组定量研究中的应用情况进行考察。蛋白鉴定采用高准确度、高灵敏度、高分辨率的LTQ-FTICR-MS/MS质谱仪。实验表明:SCX和IPG-IEF在大规模磷酸化肽段分离过程中均有效;在复杂样本中,SCX技术的分离效果优于IPG-IEF;IPG-IEF的重复性好于SCX;在磷酸化蛋白质组定量分析结果表明,IPG-IEF技术的稳定性优于SCX。本研究为根据不同实验目的而选择适当的磷酸化蛋白质组预分离技术提供了有用信息。     

Detection and sequencing of phosphopeptides

Consecutive enzymatic reactions of analytes which are affinity bound to immobilized metal ion beads with subsequent direct analysis of the products by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry have been used for detecting phosphorylation sites. The usefulness of this method was demonstrated by analyzing two commercially available phosphoproteins, beta-casein and alpha-casein, as well as one phosphopeptide from a kinase reaction mixture. Agarose loaded with either Fe3+ or Ga3+ was used to isolate phosphopeptides from the protein digest. Results from using either metal ion were complementary. Less overall suppression effect was achieved when Ga3+-loaded agarose was used to isolate phosphopeptides. The selectivity for monophosphorylated peptides, however, was better with Fe3+-loaded agarose. This technique is easy to use and has the ability to analyze extremely complicated phosphopeptide mixtures. Moreover, it eliminates the need for prior high-performance liquid chromatography separation or radiolabeling, thus greatly simplifying the sample preparation.     

Sequential Fe3O4/TiO2 enrichment for phosphopeptide analysis by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

Protein phosphorylation regulates a wide range of cellular functions and is associated with signaling pathways in cells. Various strategies for enrichment of phosphoproteins or phosphopeptides have been developed. Here, we developed a novel sequential phosphopeptide enrichment method, using magnetic iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) particles, to detect mono‐ and multi‐phosphorylated peptides. In the first step, phosphopeptides were captured on Fe₃O₄ particles. In a subsequent step, any residual phosphopeptides were captured on TiO₂ particles. The particles were eluted and rinsed to yield phosphopeptide‐enriched fractions that were combined and analyzed using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). The validity of this sequential Fe₃O₄/TiO₂ enrichment strategy was demonstrated by the successful enrichment of bovine α‐casein phosphopeptides. We then applied the sequential Fe₃O₄/TiO₂ enrichment method to the analysis of phosphopeptides in L6 muscle cell lysates and successfully identified mono‐ and multi‐phosphorylated peptides. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Highly selective and sensitive enrichment of phosphopeptides via NiO nanoparticles using a microwave-assisted centrifugation on-particle ionization/enrichment approach in MALDI-MS

The strategy to concentrate phosphopeptides has become a critical issue for mapping protein phosphorylation sites, which are well known as posttranslational modifications in proteomics. In this study, we propose a simple and highly sensitive method for phosphopeptide enrichment on NiO nanoparticles (NPs) from a trypsin predigested phosphoprotein complex solution in a microwave oven. Furthermore, this technique was combined with centrifugation on-particle ionization/enrichment of phosphopeptides and phosphopeptides were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Weak magnetism of these NPs and a positive surface charge effect at low pH accomplished rapid and selective phosphopeptide enrichment within 30s. Trypsin-digested products of phosphoproteins such as α-casein and β-casein, human blood serum, nonfat milk, and egg white were also investigated to explore their phosphopeptide enrichment from complex samples by this approach. The results demonstrate that NiO NPs exhibit good affinity to trace the phosphopeptides even in the presence of 30 times higher molar concentration of complex solution of non-phosphopeptide proteolytic predigested bovine serum albumin. The detection limits of NiO NPs for α-casein and β-casein were 2.0?×?10(-9) M, with good signal-to-noise ratio in the mass spectrum. NiO NPs were found to be effective and selective for enrichment of singly and multiply phosphorylated peptides at a trace level in complex samples in a microwave oven. The cost of preparing NiO NPs is low, the NiO NPs are thermally stable, and therefore, they hold great promise for use in phosphopeptide enrichment.