Biomolecular Characterization Team, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
Mass Spectrom Rev. 2011 Nov-Dec;30(6):1000-12. doi: 10.1002/mas.20325. Epub 2011 Feb 16.
Mass spectrometry (MS) allows the sensitive and direct characterization of biological macromolecules and therefore has the potential to complement the more conventional genetic and biochemical methods used for RNA characterization. Although MS has been used much less frequently for RNA research than it has been for protein research, recent technical improvements in both instrumentation and software make MS a powerful tool for RNA analysis because it can now be used to sequence, quantify, and chemically analyze RNAs. Mass spectrometry is particularly well suited for the characterization of RNAs associated with ribonucleoprotein complexes. This review focuses on the software and databases that can be used for MS-based RNA studies. Software for the processing of raw mass spectra, the identification and characterization of RNAs by mass mapping, de novo sequencing, and tandem MS-based database searching are available.
质谱 (MS) 可实现对生物大分子的灵敏直接分析，因此有潜力补充用于 RNA 分析的更为传统的遗传和生化方法。尽管 MS 在 RNA 研究中的应用比在蛋白质研究中的应用要少得多，但仪器和软件方面的最新技术改进使得 MS 成为 RNA 分析的强大工具，因为它现在可用于测序、定量和化学分析 RNA。MS 特别适合用于鉴定与核糖核蛋白复合物相关的 RNA。本综述重点介绍可用于基于 MS 的 RNA 研究的软件和数据库。可用于处理原始质谱、通过质量映射、从头测序和基于串联 MS 的数据库搜索来鉴定和分析 RNA 的软件都有。
