title: A computational approach for peptidomic analysis in taxonomic study of amphibian species.
abstract: Peptides in the skin secretion of frogs have been studied for some time now because they frequently possess important biological activity such as antibiotic, antimicrobial, or anticancer properties. In this paper, we present a computational approach for measuring the degree of similarity between the entire peptide complement of the skin secretion of specimens from the same or different species. The first step in the analysis is the generation of a mass spectral profile from an experimental high-performance liquid chromatography/electrosparay ionization analysis of the sample. An "overlap" between the mass spectral profiles of different specimens is then proposed as a measure of their similarity. Analysis of specimens from three species of the genus Litoria, viz., L. Aurea, L. Caerulea, and L. Infrafrenata, and Rana Capito of genus Rana shows that the degree of similarity is highest between specimens from the same species, lower for specimens from different species of the same genus, and lowest between specimens from different genera. This indicates that comparison of skin peptide profiles (i.e., mass spectral profiles of skin secretion) is potentially a useful aid in the taxonomic study of amphibian species.
authors.affiliation: School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Ulster, Jordanstown BT37 0QB, UK. h.zheng@ulster.ac.uk
authors.forename: Huiru
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Piyush C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Ojha
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McClean
authors.forename: Ciaren
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: Norman D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shaw
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D029845:Amphibian Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura / Q000145:classification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D010449:Peptide Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D020543:Proteome / Q000378:metabolism*; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D029845:Amphibian Proteins; D020543:Proteome