Exopeptidase digestion in combination with field desorption mass spectrometry for amino acid sequence determination

Numerous studies have been devoted in the last years to the development of mass spectrometric methods for the sequence determination of peptides [ 1,2]. Most advanced among this work has been so far the rigorous chemical derivatization of oligopeptides to achieve sufficient volatility for the application of conventional (electron impact, EI) mass spectrometry [2-41. For example, the analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of mixtures of oligopeptide fragments derivatized after chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis of polypeptides has been successfully used for sequence determinations [2,5]. Major limitations of this approach are that only small peptide derivatives are amenable t…