The overall goal of this pilot project is to determine if Biemann's approach to the sequencing of proteins by mass spectrometry can be carried out on the new bench-top gas chromatograph (GC) - mass spectrometer (MS) - computer data system (DS) developed by Hewlett Packard (HP).
The specific aims of this project are: (1) to implement PEPALG and LSTGEN (programs designed to automate the interpretation of the mass spectra of derivatized polyamino alcohols) on the HP9836 microcomputer DS; (2) to perform the studies on the HP5890A capillary GC and the HP5970B quadrupole MS necessary to determine the required constants used in PEPALG and LSTGEN in the derivation of polypeptide sequences; and (3) to determine the sequence of known test peptides using these algorithms and to test the overall sensitivity of the technique. If this pilot project is successful, this alternative technique for the sequencing of polypeptides will become available for use by non-mass spectroscopists investigating soluble mediators, differentiation factors, and genetic engineering probes and products.
