Charge state-selective separation of peptides by reversible modification of amino groups and strong cation-exchange chromatography: evaluation in proteomic studies using peptide-centric database searches.

Here we describe an integrated approach for the selective separation of peptides from complex mixtures using strong cation-exchange chromatography. The procedure exploits the charge differences produced by reversible modification of primary amino groups in peptides, enabling their separation into three major fractions: 1) neutral peptides 2) peptides with one positive charge and 3) peptides with 2 or more positive charges. The procedure demonstrated an excellent selectivity which allowed restricted MS/MS ion searches with peptide-centric databases.