Ultradeep Palmitoylomics Enabled by Dithiodipyridine-Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles

Palmitoylation, a type of fatty acylation, has vital roles in many biological processes. For ultradeep identification of protein palmitoylation, an enrichment approach based on a novel magnetic microsphere modified with 2,2'-dithiodipyridine (Fe3O4/SiO2-SSPy microsphere) is presented in this study. The Fe3O4/SiO2-SSPy microspheres were synthesized by directly coating thiol-containing silane coupling agent onto the magnetic supraparticles in aqueous solution at room temperature. Due to the intrinsic magnetic properties, high surface-to-volume ratios, and abundant reactive functional groups on the surface, these microspheres enabled direct capture of palmitoylated targets and convenient isolation, contributing to remarkable enrichment selectivity (purifying palmitoylated peptides from mixtures with nonpalmitoylated peptides even at a 1:500 molar ratio) and sensitivity (the detection limit was at femtomole level), thus enabling a global annotation of protein palmitoylation for complex biological samples. We successfully identified 1304 putative palmitoylated proteins from mouse brain tissues by using this method, which is the largest mouse palmitoylome data set to date. Except for those known members, many new proteins and pathways were also found to be regulated by palmitoylation.