2A-AW-1705 PDF
Structural analysis of bioactive peptides using mass spectrometry
Venomous animals (bee, cone snail, scorpion, snake and spider) use venom to defend against predator and/or to capture prey. Most of venom components are peptides, which exhibit potent biological activity with high specificity. Mass spectrometry plays an increasingly significant role in determining the primary structure of these bioactive peptides. However, de novo sequencing is still difficult due to complexity of peptide fragmentation. In this lecture, I will introduce the structural characterization of scorpion toxins utilizing mass spectrometry. In addition, our recent attempts to improve peptide fragmentation using chemical derivatization for facile assignment of fragments will be presented.