A methodology is described for screening fragment ion spectra of peptides p
rior to database searching for protein identification. A software routine w
ritten in the Perl programming language was used to analyze data from previ
ous Sequest database searches and develop a set of statistical descriptors
that could be used to identify spectra not likely to yield useful results i
n a database search. A second Perl program used an evolutionary algorithm t
o optimize the criteria for each statistical descriptor and generate a form
ula for determining spectral quality. This formula was used by a third Perl
program to screen data sets from four independent liquid chromatography ta
ndem mass spectrometry runs. On the average, use of the screening program r
educed the time required for a database search by 1/2 with little loss of u
seful information from the database search results. (C) 2000 American Socie
ty for Mass Spectrometry.