Improved sample preparation for CE-LIF analysis of plant N-glycans

In view of glycomics studies in plants, it is important to have sensitive tools that allow one to analyze and characterize the N‐glycans present on plant proteins in different species. Earlier methods combined plant‐based sample preparations with CE‐LIF N‐glycan analysis but suffered from background contaminations, often resulting in non‐reproducible results. This publication describes a reproducible and sensitive protocol for the preparation and analysis of plant N‐glycans, based on a combination of the ‘in‐gel release method’ and N‐glycan analysis on a multicapillary DNA sequencer. Our protocol makes it possible to analyze plant N‐glycans starting from low amounts of plant material with highly reproducible results. The developed protocol was validated for different plant species and plant cells.