The impact of chromatography and mass spectrometry on the analysis of protein phosphorylation sites.

Protein phosphorylation analysis is an enormous challenge. This review summarises the currently used techniques, which are based on radiolabelling and mass spectrometry as well as electrophoretic and chromatographic separation. Many methods exist, but there is still no single procedure applicable to all phosphoproteins. MS is able to deliver information about the location of phosphorylation sites, but phosphospecific properties with respect to ionisation present obstacles. Therefore, multidimensional approaches involving several analytical methods are often necessary to conquer phosphorylation site identification.