Quantitative proteomic assessment of very early cellular signaling events.

Technical limitations have prevented proteomic analyses of events occurring less than 30 s after signal initiation. We developed an automated, continuous quench-flow system allowing quantitative proteomic assessment of very early cellular signaling events (qPACE) with a time resolution of 1 s. Using this technique, we determined that autophosphorylation of the epidermal growth factor receptor occurs within 1 s after ligand stimulation and is followed rapidly by phosphorylation of the downstream signaling intermediates Src homologous and collagen-like protein and phospholipase C gamma 1.