De novo peptide sequencing based on a divide-and-conquer algorithm and peptide tandem spectrum simulation.

Mass spectrometry-based de novo peptide sequencing is generally more reliable on high-resolution instruments owing to their high resolution and mass accuracy. On a lower resolution instrument such as the more widely used quadrupole ion traps, de novo peptide sequencing is not so reliable or requires more MS(3) experiments. However, the peptide CID spectrum has been demonstrated to be quite reproducible on an ion trap instrument and can be predicted with good accuracy. A new de novo peptide sequencing technique, DACSIM, combining a divide-and-conquer algorithm for deriving sequence candidates and spectrum simulation for sequence refinement, is developed for spectra acquired on an ion trap instrument. When DACSIM was used to sequence peptides 500-1900 u in mass generated from proteolytic digests of hemoglobin and myoglobin, the success rate was 70% with a false positive rate of only 6%, when isoleucine and leucine residues were not distinguished.