c and d) Outer membrane vesicles. Protein identification All samples were prepared in three biological replicates and multiple technical replicates. The proteins were considered successfully identified if they were present in FGFR inhibitor at least two of the biological replicate samples with at least two peptides assigned per protein. In the case of protein MltC, OmpX and STM308, which was found in only one of the replicates the corresponding spectra were manually examined to confirm their correct identification Optimization of wash protocol Initially, outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) were washed with HPLC grade water (Sigma-Aldrich) and loaded onto the LPI™ FlowCell

in triplicates. The proteins of the OMVs were digested with trypsin and the resulting peptides were eluted from the LPI™ FlowCell and analysed using LC-MS/MS. In total, 301 proteins were identified of which 198 were identified with two or more peptide hits. Out of this 14 proteins (7%) were classified Caspase activation as outer membrane proteins (Table 1). Table 1 Proteins identified in the first trypsin digest with and without a sodium carbonate wash step. Protein type Sample Group   HPLC grade water wash Sodium Carbonate wash   Incl 1 peptide >1 peptide Incl 1 peptide >1 peptide All types 301 198 233 142 Non-membrane 253

168 134 81 Membrane-associated 48 30 99 61 OMP 26 14 54 42 % Non-membrane 84% 85% 58% 57% % Membrane-assoc. 16% 15% 42% 43% % OMP 9% 7% 23% 29% The low proportion of outer membrane proteins was attributed to high level of contamination selleck compound from cytosolic proteins. The washing protocol using HPLC grade water was considered not to be efficient in removing cytosolic proteins that were non-specifically attached to the membrane vesicles. To reduce the level of contamination, a further set of experiments were carried out where the vesicle preparations, in triplicates, were washed twice with ice

cold sodium carbonate prior to being loaded onto the LPI™ FlowCell. In total, 233 proteins were identified of which 142 were identified with two or more peptide hits. The percentage of non-membrane associated proteins identified dropped from 85% to 57% when compared to the preparation without a sodium carbonate wash. The removal of cytosolic proteins was accompanied with an increase of the outer membrane proteins detected. After the washing step, 28 additional OMPs were detected giving a total of 42 OMPs identified with more than 1 peptide hit (Table 1). There was a four-fold increase in proportion of outer membrane proteins from 7% to 29% when compared to the run that was not subjected to the sodium carbonate wash step (Table 1). Optimization using multi-step protocols Considering many of the outer membrane and membrane associated proteins were identified from a single peptide, the immobilised vesicles were subjected to a second round of trypsin digestion for 1 hr in order to generate additional peptides and increase the sequence coverage.