Extraction of N-terminally Blocked Proteins from Electrophoresis Gels and Sequence Analysis Using a Benchtop MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometer

This article introduces an example of sequence analysis of N-terminally blocked proteins, extracted from electrophoresis gels, using the MALDI-8020 benchtop MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer. To analyze proteins which are N-terminally blocked or not registered in databases, an expensive mass spectrometer and special skills are required. From these reasons, sequence analysis of such proteins was impossible for a non-expert of mass spectrometry. However, by using the technique introduced in this article, protein sequence analysis can be performed without using an expensive mass spectrometer.