Progress and Application of LC-MS Technologies for Characterizing Protein Post Translational Modifications

Post translational modifications (PTMs) are the utmost important molecular processes for regulating various signaling pathways and determining specific cell fate. At molecular level, PTMs related "writing", "erasing" and "reading" processes are the most critical processes for realizing their dynamic regulation and all belong to the research areas of biological analytical chemistry. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based proteomics have been developed extensively in the past decade and becoming the standard approach for characterizing different PTMs on a global scale. Here, we will explain the biological importance of various PTMs, summarize key innovation for developing PTMs enrichment strategies, high-performance liquid chromatography-based fractionation approaches, and mass spectrometry detection methods and highlight some new research directions. With recent great effort from the proteomics society for developing highly efficient enriching methods and building comprehensive resources, we will specifically focus our discussion on five major types of PTMs, including phosphorylation, glycosylation, ubiquitination, acetylation, and methylation. With the development of novel enrichment methods, liquid chromatography separation approaches, and biological mass spectrometry techniques, we expect the methodology and technology innovation in bioanalytical chemistry field will greatly facilitate the protein PTMs research at system level.