Contemporary positional proteomics strategies to study protein processing

Positional proteomics refers to mass spectrometry (MS)-driven proteomics technologies by which peptides carrying the amino or carboxyl terminus of proteins are enriched from whole proteomes, and identified by means of MS. Proteases irreversibly modify their substrates by hydrolyzing peptide bonds and have thus profound effects on the biological processes steered by their substrates. Since proteases create novel termini in their substrates, positional proteomics is ideally suited for protease degradomics studies. We here review recent developments in the field of positional proteomics applied to protease research.