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Isobaric tagging enables the acquisition of highly-multiplexed proteome quantification but is hindered by the pervasive problem of precursor interference. The elimination of co-isolated contaminants prior to reporter tag generation can be achieved through the use of gas-phase purification via proton transfer ion/ion reactions (QuantMode); however, the original QuantMode technique was implemented on the high resolution linear ion trap-Orbitrap hybrid mass spectrometer enabled with electron transfer dissociation (ETD). Here we extend this technology to stand-alone linear ion trap systems (trapQuantMode). Facilitated by the use of inlet beam-type activation (i.e., trapHCD) for production and observation of the low mass-to-charge reporter region, this scan sequence comprises three separate events to maximize peptide identifications, minimize duty cycle requirements, and increase quantitative accuracy, precision, and dynamic range. Significant improvements in quantitative accuracy were attained over standard methods when using trapQuantMode (trapQM) to analyze an interference model system comprising tryptic peptides of yeast that we contaminated with human peptides. Finally, we demonstrate practical benefits of this method by analysis of the proteomic changes that occur during mouse skeletal muscle myoblast differentiation. While trapQM’s reduced duty cycle led to the identification of fewer proteins than conventional operation (4,050 vs. 2,964), trapQM identified more significant differences (>1.5 fold, 1,362 vs 1,132, respectively; P

Data-independent acquisition (DIA) strategies provide a sensitive and reproducible alternative to data-dependent acquisition (DDA) methods for large-scale quantitative proteomic analyses. Unfortunately, DIA methods suffer from incompatibility with common multiplexed quantification methods, specifically stable isotope labeling approaches such as isobaric tags and stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC). Here we expand the use of neutron-encoded (NeuCode) SILAC to DIA applications (NeuCoDIA), producing a strategy that enables multiplexing within DIA scans without further convoluting the already complex MS(2) spectra. We demonstrate duplex NeuCoDIA analysis of both mixed-ratio (1:1 and 10:1) yeast and mouse embryo myogenesis proteomes. Analysis of the mixed-ratio yeast samples revealed the strong accuracy and precision of our NeuCoDIA method, both of which were comparable to our established MS(1)-based quantification approach. NeuCoDIA also uncovered the dynamic protein changes that occur during myogenic differentiation, demonstrating the feasibility of this methodology for biological applications. We consequently establish DIA quantification of NeuCode SILAC as a useful and practical alternative to DDA-based approaches.