We are requesting $72,000 from the National Science Foundation to purchase the Applied Biosystems ProciseTM Protein Sequencing system from Perkin Elmer. This will replace the Applied Biosystems 470A Protein Sequencer, now at the end of its useful life, and allow us to use the 477A Sequencer either as a backup amino-terminal sequencer or as a carboxyl-terminal sequencer. The ProciseTM Sequencer will give the Molecular Genetics Instrumentation Facility here a sequencing capacity equal to or greater than the present capacity even if both current instruments are retired. This will allow undiminished sequence determination for all users of the facility, particularly for sequence determination of proteins from hyperthermophiles, proteases and inhibitors involved in protein processing and development of diseased states, proteins involved in methane and C02 metabolism and in degradation of cellulose, proteins employed as redox carriers in microbes and proteins involved in mammalian fertilization. The carboxyl terminal sequencing capacity will enable us to more easily obtain complete sequences of proteins using PCR technology, confirm sequence changes near the carboxyl terminus of site-directed mutagenized proteins, help elucidate the specificities of proteases and their inhibitors, help identify peptides in terms of their sequence position and help complete sequencing of peptides and proteins.
