Protein Characterization By Mass Spectrometry

随着人类基因组接近完全鉴定，人们的注意力转向蛋白质表征，因为蛋白质是实际参与生理过程的物质，可以单独地、翻译后修饰和/或作为复合物的一部分。最先进的蛋白质鉴定是基于蛋白水解肽的质谱表征，要么通过肽图数据，要么通过序列标签数据，结合数据库搜索。除了蛋白质鉴定外，鉴定翻译后修饰和修饰位点也是蛋白质鉴定的极其重要的方面。蛋白质的磷酸化控制着基本的细胞过程，确定蛋白质的磷酸化状态和磷酸化的特定位点提供了重要的信息，可用于提出机制假设，以及理解所涉及的过程。我们正在积极开发和应用基于质谱的方法来表征磷蛋白。

As the human genome comes close to being completely identified, attention is turning to protein characterization, because the proteins are the substances actually involved in physiological processes, individually, posttranslationally modified and/or as part of complexes. State-of-the-art protein identification is based on mass spectrometric characterization of proteolytic peptides, either through peptide mapping data or through sequence tag data, combined with data base searching. In addition to protein identification, identification of post-translational modifications and sites of modification are extremely important aspects of protein characterization. Phosphorylation of proteins controls basic cellular processes and determination of the state of phosphorylation of a protein and the specific sites of phosphorylation provides important information that can be used for proposing mechanistic hypotheses, as well as for understanding the processes involved. We are actively developing and applying mass spectrometry-based methods for the characterization of phosphoproteins.