Tandem mass spectrometric analysis of peptides at the femtomole level.
In the sequential analysis of peptides by fast atom bombardment (FAB) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), the principal obstacle to decreasing sample quantities was determined to be the signal-to-background ratio of the ionization/desorption process. By decreasing the background ion current, continuous-flow FAB allows complete analysis (both MS and MS/MS) to be performed on 25-75% less sample than required for a conventional FABMS/MS experiment alone. The combination of CF-FAB with array detection permitted sequential analysis of several peptides (900-2000 Da) at the 900 fmol to 5.8 pmol level, without interference from the background. These levels do not produce a molecular ion species easily discernible above the background in conventional FAB.
Kenny
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PT
Suntory Institute for Bioorganic Research, Osaka, Japan.
Orlando
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R
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D016339:Spectrometry, Mass, Fast Atom Bombardment / Q000379:methods*
D010455:Peptides