Disentangling electrospray spectra with maximum entropy

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Software using maximum entropy (MaxEnt) analysis has been developed, and used to econvolute complete electrospray spectra of protein mixtures. It automatically produces zero‐charge mass spectra on a molecular mass scale, along with probabilistic quantification so that the reliability of features in the spectrum can be ascertained. Because maximum entropy is faithful to the experimental data, the results tend to have improved resolution and signal‐to‐noise ratio. This improved performance, particularly regarding resolution, is demonstrated on a haemoglobin containing two β‐globins separated by 12 Da at m/z 15 867 (0.08%). A separation of 12 Da was previously the closest at which mass measurement of two globins was practicable. Also, two hiherto unresolved β‐globins from a second haemoglobin, separated by 9 Da (0.06%) were resolved by MaxEnt and their masses accurately measured. These are the first results using rigorous MaxEnt analysis in electrospray mass spectrometry.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: