Tandem peptide sequencing

However, interpretation of, or even obtaining, the mass spectrum of a peptide can be difficult, and many techniques have been introduced to overcome such difficulties. These techniques include modifying the side chains in the peptide and protecting the N- and C-terminals by special groups. Despite many advances made by these approaches, it is not always easy to read the sequence from the mass spectrum because some amide bond cleavages are less easy than others and give little information. To overcome this problem, tandem mass spectrometry has been applied to this dry approach to peptide sequencing with considerable success. Further, electrospray ionization has been used to determine the molecular masses of proteins and peptides with unprecedented accuracy. 

Several algorithms are available for the analysis of MS/MS spectra including SEQUEST, MASCOT, and X Tandem among others. Note that additional secondary quality control of assessment of MS/MS data has recently been implemented to assess identification probabilities and false positivity rates. The MS/MS spectra from an experiment can be interrogated against a concatenated forward and reverse database and an assessment of the intrinsic error rate of the data set can be made. Other approaches for secondary analysis of matching scores for peptide sequencing data include XCorr score normalization routines that are independent of peptide and database size.33... 

Tandem MS has emerged as a definitive approach for identifying proteins from multiple sources including complex mixtures. In comparison to PMF, MS/MS permits more definitive identification of proteins. Matching of multiple MS/MS spectra to peptide sequences within the same protein... 

J. A. Taylor and R. S. Johnson. Sequence Database Searches via de novo Peptide Sequencing by Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 11, no. 9 (1997) 1067-1075. 

Johnson R.S. and Taylor J.A. (2000), Searching sequence databases via de novo peptide sequencing by tandem mass spectrometry, in Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol. 146, Mass Spectrometry of Proteins and Peptides, pp. 41-61, Chapman J.R., Ed., Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. 

Peptide sequencing via post-source decay and tandem mass spectrometry. 339... 

Taylor, J. A., and Johnson, R. S. (2001). Implementation and uses of automated de novo peptide sequencing by tandem mass spectrometry. Anal. Chem. 73 2594-2604. 

Since the fusion protein partner is substantially larger than the size of the required peptide, overall peptide yield represents only a fraction of the purified fusion protein, even before losses due to subsequent purification. For example, for a fusion protein of 150 amino acids and a peptide of 15 amino acids, the relative levels of products are 91 and 9%, respectively. So, it is useful to increase the proportion of the final fusion protein that comprises peptide sequences. This can be achieved either by using a smaller fusion protein or by increasing the number of peptide sequences cloned in tandem with the fusion partner. As shown in the following examples both approaches have been adopted, but with variable results. Finally, the separation of the tandem repeats of peptides into monomers can be achieved by either chemical cleavage or enzymatic cleavage (Section 1.1.1.3). 

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