Use of a label-free quantitative platform based on MS/MS average TIC to calculate dynamics of protein complexes in insulin signaling.

A label-free quantification strategy including the development of in-house software (NakedQuant) to calculate the average TIC across all spectral counts in tandem affinity purification (TAP)-tagging liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry MS/MS (LC/MS/MS) experiments was applied to a large-scale study of protein complexes in the MAPK portion of the insulin signaling pathway from Drosophila cells. Dynamics were calculated under basal and stimulating conditions as fold changes. These experiments were performed in the context of a core service model with the user performing the TAP immunoprecipitation and the MS core performing the MS and informatics stops. The MS strategy showed excellent coverage of known components in addition to potentially novel interactions.