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The most common experiment that is performed is to cut protein bands from Coomassie blue-stained gels and digest that protein directly in the gel band. Any protein that can be detected by Coomassie blue staining can be sequenced by our methods. The same experiment can also be carried out with silver-stained gel bands provided the silver staining protocol does not include glutaraldehyde in the gel fixing steps. Silver stained gels, however, are far more susceptible to contamination by background proteins such as keratins, making successful analyses far less reliable.

Other types of mass spectrometric experiments can be considered. In general, however, experiments that do not involve proteins and peptide will not be compatible with the instrument conditions that must be preserved for the protein sequencing experiments.

All investigators considering the use of mass spectrometric sequencing experiments are encouraged to contact Dr. Mike Kinter at 444-7170.