抄録
Achievement of the unit mass accuracy in the molecular mass determination of proteins has been stressed. Single mass change of proteins is caused by single amino acid substitutions including Glu/Lys, Asn/Leu, Asn/Ile, Asp/Asn, and Glu/Gln, of which four mutations except for Asn/Leu are produced by single nucleotide changes. In the case of Hemoglobin Hoshida, a substitution of Asn for Asp was found in a peptide of 2056.9 Da with a decrease of single mass unit. In a structural study of the transferrin isoform which is characteristic of carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndrome and missing asparagine-linked oligosaccharides, assignment of Asn but not Asp for the residue that should be glycosylated was necessary for delineating the molecular pathogenesis of this disorder. However, as demonstrated in β2-microglobulin, proteins are often partially deamidated during sample preparation or in vivo. This may compromise the biological significance of the precise mass measurement of proteins.
