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Detection and analysis of protein histidine phosphorylation

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Abstract

Protein histidine phosphorylation is well established as an important part of signalling systems in bacteria, fungi and plants and there is growing evidence of its role in mammalian cell biology. Compared to phosphoserine, phosphothreonine and phosphotyrosine, phosphohistidine is relatively labile, especially under the acidic conditions that were developed to analyse protein phosphorylation. In recent years, there has been an increasing impetus to develop specific methods for the analysis of histidine phosphorylation and assay of histidine kinase activity. Most recently attention has focussed on the application of mass spectrometry to this end. This review provides an overview of methods available for the detection and analysis of phosphohistidine in phosphoproteins, with particular emphasis on the application of mass spectrometric techniques.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the UWA Small Grant Scheme and the Raine Medical Research Foundation for their financial support.

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  1. School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences (M310), The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Paul G. Besant & Paul V. Attwood

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  1. Paul G. Besant
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Correspondence to Paul V. Attwood.

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Besant, P.G., Attwood, P.V. Detection and analysis of protein histidine phosphorylation. Mol Cell Biochem 329, 93–106 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-009-0117-2

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