stability of protein sample after in-gel digestion - (Apr/18/2006 )

i am planning to do spot cutting and in-gel digestion of the coomassie brilliant blue staining gel. this technique is totally new to me.

i have come scross a few protocols. after the trysin reaction, we will let our sample to dry in the vacuum concentrator, then we'll resuspend the pellet before we proceed to Mass Spectrometry.

my question is after we let the sample dry in the vacuum concentrator, can we keep the sample before we proceed to Mass Spectrometry? keep it in what condition? how long we can keep it?

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can you give a few more details about your protocol? What solution do you use to elute the peptides from the gel spots?
I`m keeping my samples (the eluted peptides) overnight at 4 deg. in this solution, but I never tried it longer.
You can place your samples on the MALDI target and keep them a long time

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thanks for ur reply.
i use sequencing grade modified trypsin in ammonium bicarbonate to digest the peptides. then will centrifuge to collect the supernatant.
i read somewhere, they mention that after keep the supernatant dry in the vacuum concentrator can keep in freezer. but they didn't mention how long we can keep the sample that way before proceed to MALDi TOF/LC MS

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