Immune peptides MALDI

The efficacy of MS to characterize effectors of Drosophila immunity and Phormia (also referred in the literature as Protophormia) terranovae is illustrated by several examples. This will not follow a chronological order but is in accordance with the complexity of the MS analyses. MS allowed (i) to define precise molecular masses, to identify post-translational modifications (N-terminal cyclisation, C-terminal amidation, disulfide bonds array, glycosylation), (ii) to determine primary structures of immune peptides (sequencing by MS/MS), (iii) to have mass fingerprints and to identify peptide effectors that are part of Drosophila immunity (molecular mass differential display by MALDI-MS),... 

For MALDI-TOF MS several sample preparations are available with different matrices (26). The choice of the matrix and of the sample preparation should be adapted to the molecular mass of the compounds and to the complexity of the samples to analyze. a-Cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (4HCCA) is preferred for peptides between 1 and 15 kDa, and the sandwich sample preparation can be universally used for molecular mass determination of pure peptides and enzymatic fragments or complex mixtures (e.g., crude hemolymph, enzymatic digests). The procedures reported below are the ones used for the discovery of the Drosophila immune-induced peptides (19,27,30). 

A relevant set of not experimentally infected individuals (control) is required for differential analysis by MALDI-TOF-MS or RP-HPLC in order to discriminate between immune-induced molecules and constitutively present substances (19). This is a prerequisite when no in vitro assays are used to select the bioactive peptides from the immune system of the model invertebrate investigated. 

Fig. (1). Peptidomics strategies used to study Drosophila immunity. (A) Using antimicrobial assays (antibacterial and antifungal), the bioactive peptides were isolated from the blood of bacteria-challenged Drosophila. MS was used for molecular mass assignment, to identify post-translational modifications, and for primary structure elucidation (B) Identification of peptidic immune effectors through differential display analysis (DD) by MALDI-MS and micro/nano RP-HPLC coupled (online) or not (off-line) to ESI-MS. When the HPLC was performed off-line to the mass spectrometer, fractions were individually analyzed by MALDI-MS. The identification and the structural characterization were performed either by molecular mass assignment and/or sequencing by ESI-MS/MS.

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