Peptides, cleaved by a mixture of carboxypeptidases CPP and CPY, can b
e detected by MALDI MS and the amino acid sequence thereby determined
by calculation of the differences between consecutive peaks. In the pr
esent study we have used derivatizations of Lys and Cys to facilitate
identification of these residues. Since the mass values do not readily
distinguish Lys from Gln, we have converted Lys to homoarginine by gu
anidination, allowing simple detection of Lys. To identify the Cys pos
itions in peptides that contain cystine, cysteic acid, or carboxymethy
lcysteine is not possible using CPY and CPP because of the lack of pro
teolytic cleavage. Instead we find that identification of Cys residues
within the sequence can be achieved after conversion to a basic deriv
ative, 4-thialaminine (Thi), by trimethylaminoethylation.