Analysis of mass spectrometry data in proteomics

Abstract

The systematic study of proteins and protein networks, that is, proteomics, calls for qualitative and quantitative analysis of proteins and peptides. Mass spectrometry (MS) is a key analytical technology in current proteomics and modern mass spectrometers generate large amounts of high-quality data that in turn allow protein identification, annotation of secondary modifications, and determination of the absolute or relative abundance of individual proteins. Advances in mass spectrometryûdriven proteomics rely on robust bioinformatics tools that enable large-scale data analysis. This chapter describes some of the basic concepts and current approaches to the analysis of MS and MS/MS data in proteomics. © 2008 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.