AN ALGORITHM TO DETERMINE PROTEIN-SEQUENCE ALIGNMENT BY UTILIZING DATA OBTAINED FROM A PEPTIDE MIXTURE AND INDIVIDUAL PEPTIDES

With the aim of limiting peptide purification steps and unambiguously ascertaining protein sequences, we have designed and implemented on a personal computer an algorithm to determine sequence alignment by util izing data obtained from automatic Edman degradation performed on a si ngle peptide mixture and individual peptides. The protein under study is digested by two different hydrolysis methods and fragments are just isolated from one mixture and sequenced, while the second mixture is submitted unfractionated to sequence analysis. The algorithm provides for the exact alignment of the individual peptides using the mixture d ata for the overlapping. We report an example of application of this a pproach by utilizing experimental data obtained from a protein of know n sequence.