Protein Sequencing

Protein sequencing is a technique to determine the amino acid sequence of a protein, as well as which conformation the protein adopts and the extent to which it is complexed with any non-peptide molecules. Discovering the structures and functions of proteins in living organisms is an important tool for understanding cellular processes, and allows drugs that target specific metabolic pathways to be invented more easily.

The two major direct methods of protein sequencing are mass spectrometry and the Edman degradation reaction. It is also possible to generate an amino acid sequence from the DNA or mRNA sequence encoding the protein, if this is known. However, there are a number of other reactions which can be used to gain more limited information about protein sequences and can be used as preliminaries to the aforementioned methods of sequencing or to overcome specific inadequacies within them.

Read more about Protein Sequencing:  Determining Amino Acid Composition, N-terminal Amino Acid Analysis, C-terminal Amino Acid Analysis, Edman Degradation, The Edman Degradation Reaction, Mass Spectrometry, Predicting Protein Sequence From DNA/RNA Sequences

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