How to generate isotope-labeled peptides remains an urgent challenge for accurately quantitative targeted proteomics on a large scale. Herein, we propose that isotope-labeled peptides fused with a quantitative tag could be synthesized through an expression systemin vitro, and the homemade peptides could be enriched by magnetic beads with tag-affinity and globally quantified based on the corresponding multiple reaction monitoring signals provided by the fused tag. AnEscherichia colicell-free protein expression system, protein synthesis using recombinant elements, was adopted for the synthesis of isotope-labeled peptides fused withStrep-tag. Through a series of optimizations, we enabled efficient expression of the labeled peptides such that, afterStrep-Tactin affinity enrichment, the peptide yield was acceptable in scale for quantification, and the peptides could be completely digested by trypsin to release theStrep-tag for quantification. Moreover, these recombinant peptides could be employed in the same way as synthetic peptides for multiple reaction monitoring applications and are likely more economical and useful in a laboratory for the scale of targeted proteomics. As an application, we synthesized four isotope-labeled glutathione S-transferase (GST) peptides and added them to mouse sera pre-treated with GST affinity resin as internal standards. A quantitative assay of the synthesized GST peptides confirmed the absolute GST quantification in mouse sera to be measurable and reproducible.
