JMSSJ On-line

JMSSJ On-line, Vol. 48 (2000) No. 5, pp. 289-297

Study of the Mechanism of Biological Systems Using Mass Spectrometry; From Proteome Analysis to Structural Biology		>> Full Text PDF >> References
Kazuo HIRAYAMA^* ^† This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Takekiyo MATSUO. ^* Central Research Laboratories Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (1-1 Suzuki-cho, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki 210-8681, Japan)

The development of biochemistry and molecular biology has enabled to study the mechanism of various biological systems, such as protein-protein interactions. However, structural biology has been successfully applied to only a few studies of protein-protein interactions. As the development of technologies of X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry (NMR), it is now possible to obtain precise information on the tertiary structure of proteins. Mass spectrometry is also an effective tool to analyze the structure of large biomolecules. In addition, computational chemistry plays an important role in the study of the protein-ligand interaction. This paper demonstrates how effective mass spectrometry is in the studies of structure-function relationships of biomolecule networks. Prospects of the mass spectrometers for the study of protein structure is also discussed.

Key words: Proteome analysis, Structural biology, Nuclear magnetic resonance, X-Ray crystallography, Computational chemistry