This was a question from one of my blog’s secret readers. Actually, most of the time I feel like I am talking to myself: “Hey Tania, how do you prepare a protein sample for proteolysis?” “Well, Tania, let me show you in a step-by-step tutorial.” No comments, no questions, no pointing out typos, no “thank you, Tania, but there’s a better way to do this”?

Oh well, back to ammonium bicarbonate. This is a volatile salt which breaks down to ammonia, carbon dioxide, and water. Volatile salts are the only salts compatible with MS. Aqueous solutions of ammonium bicarbonate (0.01 – 0.1 M) have pH around 8, the optimal pH for trypsin activity. Ammonium bicarbonate competes with basic amino acids for Coomassie dye, which makes it a great de-staining reagent for the in-gel digestion procedure. All this goodness comes at a very reasonable price – what not to like? Another ammonium salt, triethylammonium bicarbonate (TEAB), is more volatile than ammonium bicarbonate; it is also more expensive. TEAB is a buffer of choice for LC-MS applications: TMT (iTRAQ) amine-reactive labeling, ion-exchange chromatography, protein solubilization (when neutral and acidic pH is undesirable), in-gel digestion, etc.