Effects of Temperature and Acetonitrile on Microwave-Assisted Weak Acid Protein Hydrolysis

The effects of temperature and acetonitrile (ACN) concentration on microwave-assisted weak-acid hydrolysis of proteins were investigated. Myoglobin was hydrolyzed for 1 h using 2% formic acid and a microwave with different concentrations of ACN (0, 5, and 10%) at various temperatures (50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and $100^{\circ}C$). The numbers of peptides identified with each concentration of ACN were the same for each temperature. The greatest number of peptides (18 total) was obtained with hydrolysis at $100^{\circ}C$, and 6 of these were a result of additional removal of aspartic acid at the C-terminus. Hydrolysis at $80^{\circ}C$ resulted in 13 peptides, of which only 1 was generated by the additional removal of aspartic acid, and 12 were observed with hydrolysis at $100^{\circ}C$. Our results demonstrate that microwave-assisted weak-acid hydrolysis of proteins can be performed successfully at $80^{\circ}C$, which could be beneficial for limiting side reactions and generating larger peptide sequences.