Sequence databases, peptide sequencing

Primary structure peptide aird/or nucleotide sequence and the relationship between the PUB sequence and that found in the sequence database(s) StQUHS... 

Besides such textual databases that provide bibhographic information, sequence databases have attained an even more important role in biochemistry. Sequence databases are composed of amino add sequences of peptides or proteins as well as nudeotide sequences of nudeic acids. The 20 amino adds are mostly represented by a three-letter code or by one letter according to the biochemical conventions) the four nudeic adds are defined by a one-letter code. Thus the composition of a biochemical compound is searchable by text retrieval methods. 

Besides sensitive methods for the analysis of proteins, bioinformatics is one of the key components of proteome research. This includes software to monitor and quantify the separation of complex samples, e.g., to analyze 2DE images. Web-based database search engines are available to compare experimentally measured peptide masses or sequence ions of protein digests with theoretical values of peptides derived from protein sequences. Websites for database searching with mass spectrometric data may be found at http //www.expasy.ch/tools, http //prospector.ucsf. edu/ and http //www.matrixscience.com. 

Computer algorithms facilitate identification of the open reading frames that encode a given protein by using partial sequences and peptide mass profiling to search sequence databases. 

The major advantage of the tandem mass spectrometry approach compared to MALDI peptide fingerprinting, is that the sequence information obtained from the peptides is more specific for the identification of a protein than simply determining the mass of the peptides. This permits a search of expressed sequence tag nucleotide databases to discover new human genes based upon identification of the protein. This is a useful approach because, by definition, the genes identified actually express a protein. 

Figure 2.6. LC-tandem mass spectrometry to examine complex mixtures. The mixture of many different proteins is digested to yield peptides and the peptides are resolved into fractions hy cation exchange chromatography followed by reverse phase chromatography. The fractionation steps resolve the peptides into fractions that he processed hy tandem mass spectrometry to yield sequence information suitable for database searching.

Figure 5.11. Generic approaches to identify interacting proteins within complexes. The complex is isolated from cells by affinity purification using a tag sequence attached to a protein known to be in the complex. Alternatively, the complex can be immunprecipitated with an antibody to one of the proteins in the complex. The proteins are resolved by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, proteolyzed, and the mass of the resulting peptides is determined by mass spectrometry. Alternatively, the proteins can be proteolyzed and the resulting peptides resolved by liquid chromatography. The peptide masses are then determined by mass spectrometry and used for database searching to identify the component proteins.

Henzel, W. J., Billeci, T. M., Stults, J. T., and Wong, S. C. (1993). Identifying proteins from two-dimensional gels by molecular mass searching of peptide fragments in protein sequence databases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 5011-5015. 

Proteomics algorithms have been developed to search databases of protein sequences for matches to short sequences determined experimentally from proteins or peptides in the laboratory,5 59 and for theoretical matches to... 

Peptide microsequencing has proved to be a powerful approach to identify protein components of mixtures,53-55,61 and has been applied to extracted proteins as a method to identify biological threats.56,83-85 Commercial and internet accessible search engines and databases provide adequate bioinformatics support to use sequence information produced by the mass spectrometer (e.g., http //www.matrixscience.com http //prospector.ucsf.edu/ ucsfhtml4.0/mstagfd.htm http //prowl.rockefeller.edu/). 

Mann, M. Wilm, M. Error-tolerant identification of peptides in sequence databases by peptide sequence tags. Anal. Chem. 1994, 66,4390-4399. 

Eng, J. K. McCormack, A. L. Yates, J. R. An approach to correlate tandem mass spectra data of peptides with amino acid sequences in a protein database. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 1994,5, 976-989. 

If a monoclonal antibody was generated by immunization with a full-length native protein rather than a peptide, then the immunized mouse will generate antibodies that recognize both linear and conformationally dependent epitopes. Only a small subset of these monoclonal antibodies will likely be useful for clinical use on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue (FFPE) samples. Those that are useful tend to have epitopes that are linear the epitopes are not dependent on the protein s three-dimensional conformation (see Chapter 16). Therefore, for antibodies generated in response to immunization with full-length proteins, the peptides that serve as positive controls will be linear stretches of amino acids derived from the native protein sequence, as listed in protein databases. 

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