title: Informatics development: challenges and solutions for MALDI mass spectrometry.
abstract: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) has been successfully applied to elucidating biological questions trough the analysis of proteins, peptides, and nucleic acids. Here, we review the different approaches for analyzing the data that is generated by MALDI-MS. The first step in the analysis is the processing of the raw data to find peaks that correspond to the analytes. The peaks are characterized by their areas (or heights) and their centroids. The peak area can be used as a measure of the quantity of the analyte, and the centroid can be used to determine the mass of the analyte. The masses are then compared to models of the analyte, and these models are ranked according to how well they fit the data and their significance is calculated. This allows the determination of the identity (sequence and modifications) of the analytes. We show how this general data analysis workflow is applied to protein and nucleic acid chemistry as well as proteomics.
authors.affiliation: The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA. fenyo@rockefeller.edu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fenyö
authors.forename: Ronald C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Beavis
mesh_terms: D045424:Complex Mixtures / Q000032:analysis*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000639:trends*; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D010449:Peptide Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D040901:Proteomics / Q000639:trends*; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000639:trends*
chemical_list: D045424:Complex Mixtures; D009696:Nucleic Acids