Oberacher Herbert
Institute of Legal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
Eur J Mass Spectrom (Chichester). 2010;16(3):351-65. doi: 10.1255/ejms.1045.
Nucleic acids research is a highly competitive field of research. A number of well established methods are available. The current output of high throughput ("next generation") sequencing technologies is impressive, and still technologies are continuing to make progress regarding read lengths, bp per second, accuracy and costs. Although in the 1990s MS was considered as an analytical platform for sequencing, it was soon realized that MS will never be competitive. Thus, the focus shifted from de novo sequencing towards other areas of application where MS has proven to be a powerful analytical tool. Potential niches for the application of MS in nucleic acids research include genotyping of genetic markers (single nucleotide polymorphisms, short tandem repeats, and combinations thereof), quality control of synthetic oligonucleotides, metabolic profiling of therapeutics, characterization of modified nucleobases in DNA and RNA molecules, and the study of non covalent interactions among nucleic acids as well as interactions of nucleic acids with drugs and proteins. The diversity of possible applications for MS highlights its significance for nucleic acid research.
核酸研究是一个竞争激烈的研究领域。有许多成熟的方法可供使用。当前高通量（“下一代”）测序技术的产出令人印象深刻，并且在读取长度、每秒碱基对数、准确性和成本方面仍在不断取得进展。尽管在20世纪90年代质谱被视为一种测序分析平台，但很快人们就意识到质谱永远不会具有竞争力。因此，重点从从头测序转向了其他应用领域，在这些领域质谱已被证明是一种强大的分析工具。质谱在核酸研究中的潜在应用领域包括遗传标记的基因分型（单核苷酸多态性、短串联重复序列及其组合）、合成寡核苷酸的质量控制、治疗药物的代谢谱分析、DNA和RNA分子中修饰核苷酸碱基的表征，以及核酸之间非共价相互作用以及核酸与药物和蛋白质相互作用的研究。质谱可能的应用多样性凸显了其在核酸研究中的重要性。
