Accurate peak list extraction from proteomic mass spectra for identification and profiling studies

Background: Mass spectrometry is an essential technique in proteomics both to identify the proteins of a biological sample and to compare proteomic profiles of different samples. In both cases, the main phase of the data analysis is the procedure to extract the significant features from a mass spectrum. Its final output is the socalled peak list which contains the mass, the charge and the intensity of every detected biomolecule. The main steps of the peak list extraction procedure are usually preprocessing, peak detection, peak selection, charge determination and monoisotoping operation. Results: This paper describes an original algorithm for peak list extraction from low and high resolution mass spectra. It has been developed principally to improve the precision of peak extraction in comparison to other reference algorithms. It contains many innovative features among which a sophisticated method for managing the overlapping isotopic distributions. Conclusions: The performances of the...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Nicola Barbarini, Paolo Magni
• Keywords: BMCBI 2010, List Extraction Procedure, Mass, Peak List Extraction