This method is used when the Ratio Calculation Parameter in the Precursor Ions Quantifier and the Reporter Ions Quantifier is set to Summed Abundance Based. When the study design is non-nested, the protein ratio is calculated by dividing the summed abundance values described in Calculating group abundances for the two samples chosen for that ratio. The peptide group ratio is also calculated by dividing the summed abundance values for that specific peptide.

For precursor ion quantification, the peptide group ratios are calculated slightly differently because the various isotopic forms consist of different consensus features. In this case, the peptide group abundances and the ratio are shown for only one of the isotopic forms used for the ratio when more than one of the isotopic forms has a confidently identified PSM.

In this example, the highlighted row shows that the heavy-labeled form of the peptide includes a ratio column and grouped abundance values for both the light and heavy forms of the peptide, while the light form does not show a ratio nor abundance values. For protein quantification, the ratios are calculated as a sum of the individual peptide group abundances as just described.

Peptide group abundances and ratios for a SILAC 2plex example

For a nested study design with biological replicates, the application calculates the peptide group and protein ratios differently. In this case, ratios for the summed abundances for each biological replicate are calculated separately, and the geometric median of the resulting ratios is used as the peptide group and protein ratios. The following figure shows an example calculation of protein ratios for non-nested and nested designs.

Calculating ratios in nested and non-nested design studies using the summed abundance-based approach