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MDPI, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 15(22), p. 8140, 2021

DOI: 10.3390/ijms22158140

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Monitoring Human Milk β-Casein Phosphorylation and O-Glycosylation Over Lactation Reveals Distinct Differences between the Proteome and Endogenous Peptidome

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Human milk is a vital biofluid containing a myriad of molecular components to ensure an infant’s best start at a healthy life. One key component of human milk is β-casein, a protein which is not only a structural constituent of casein micelles but also a source of bioactive, often antimicrobial, peptides contributing to milk’s endogenous peptidome. Importantly, post-translational modifications (PTMs) like phosphorylation and glycosylation typically affect the function of proteins and peptides; however, here our understanding of β-casein is critically limited. To uncover the scope of proteoforms and endogenous peptidoforms we utilized mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to achieve in-depth longitudinal profiling of β-casein from human milk, studying two donors across 16 weeks of lactation. We not only observed changes in β-casein’s known protein and endogenous peptide phosphorylation, but also in previously unexplored O-glycosylation. This newly discovered PTM of β-casein may be important as it resides on known β-casein-derived antimicrobial peptide sequences.