Separation, Identification, and Profiling of Membrane Proteins by GFC/IEC/SDS-PAGE and MALDI TOF MS

Membrane protein identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) requires that proteins be separated prior to MS analysis. After membrane solubilization with the nondenaturing detergent n -dodecyl-β-d-maltoside, proteins can be separated by ion-exchange chromatography (IEC) and further resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). An additional separation step by gel filtration (GF) before IEC/SDS-PAGE can be required depending on the complexity of the membrane protein mixture. Staining of final SDS-PAGE gels allows one to establish simply the protein expression pattern of a membrane fraction and to profile responses. Moreover, in-gel digestion of hydrophobic integral proteins is valuable. Finally, the resolution capacity of this separation procedure allows identification of proteins by MALDI-TOF MS. The method is illustrated by application to plant and yeast plasma membrane and to plant vacuolar membrane.