Peptide mass fingerprinting: protein identification using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Methods Mol Biol. 2005:310:227-40. doi: 10.1007/978-1-59259-948-6_16.

Abstract

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-time-of-flight (TOF)-mass spectrometry (MS) is now routinely used in many laboratories for the rapid and sensitive identification of proteins by peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF). We describe a simple protocol that can be performed in a standard biochemistry laboratory, whereby proteins separated by one- or two-dimensional gel electrophoresis can be identified at femtomole levels. The procedure involves excision of the spot or band from the gel, washing and de-staining, reduction and alkylation, in-gel trypsin digestion, MALDI-TOF MS of the tryptic peptides, and database searching of the PMF data. Up to 96 protein samples can easily be manually processed at one time by this method.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Protein
  • Humans
  • Molecular Weight
  • Peptide Mapping / methods*
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Proteins / chemistry
  • Software
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / methods*

Substances

  • Peptides
  • Proteins