Tryptic Digestion

Protein Breakdown

Incubation of the textile sample in a buffered solution allows the enzyme to work efficiently. During tryptic digestion, the fibers must be pre treated to break the disulfide bonds that hold the keratin together. This opens up the protein structure so the enzyme can reach the cutting sites.

The duration and temperature of the incubation are carefully controlled to ensure complete breakdown.

Reaction Condition

Acidity levels must be maintained in a specific range for the trypsin to remain active. A successful tryptic digestion produces a repeatable set of peptides for each animal species. If the conditions are wrong, the enzyme may not cut the protein correctly, leading to missing markers in the final analysis.

Labs use standardized protocols to ensure that results are consistent across different batches.

Peptide Recovery

Filtering and cleaning the resulting liquid ensures that only the relevant fragments are sent to the mass spectrometer. After tryptic digestion, the peptides are often concentrated to improve the sensitivity of the test. This allows for the detection of even tiny amounts of rare fibers like vicuna or shahtoosh.

The efficiency of this step determines the accuracy of the entire proteomic profiling process.