Optimization of guanidination procedures for MALDI mass mapping

Improved procedures for guanidination of lysine-containing peptides, a derivatization that results in increased MALDI mass spectral signal intensities are presented. The complete conversion of lysines to homoarginines can be accomplished in as little as 5 min. The method is demonstrated on a model peptide and on tryptic digests of three proteins. To demonstrate the applicability to proteomics samples, it is successfully applied to the digest of 50 fmol of a protein. Approaches for concentrating and purifying low-quantity protein digests following guanidination are evaluated. Experiments with the model peptide GRGDSPK enable investigation of the specificity of the guanidination reaction.