Evaluating the Performance of the Astral Mass Analyzer for Quantitative Proteomics Using Data-Independent Acquisition
Lilian R. Heil, Eugen Damoc, Tabiwang N. Arrey, Anna Pashkova, Eduard Denisov, J. Petzoldt, Amelia C. Peterson, Chris Hsu, Brian C. Searle, Nicholas Shulman, Michael Riffle, B. Connolly, Brendan MacLean, Philip M. Remes, Michael W. Senko, Hamish Stewart, Christian Hock, Alexander Makarov, Daniel Hermanson, Vlad Zabrouskov, Christine C. Wu, Michael J. MacCoss
Abstract
We evaluate the quantitative performance of the newly released Asymmetric Track Lossless (Astral) analyzer. Using data-independent acquisition, the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometer quantifies 5 times more peptides per unit time than state-of-the-art Thermo Scientific Orbitrap mass spectrometers, which have long been the gold standard for high-resolution quantitative proteomics. Our results demonstrate that the Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometer can produce high-quality quantitative measurements across a wide dynamic range. We also use a newly developed extracellular vesicle enrichment protocol to reach new depths of coverage in the plasma proteome, quantifying over 5000 plasma proteins in a 60 min gradient with the Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometer.