Amino acid analysis and protein database compositional search as a rapid and inexpensive method to identify proteins.

The identification of protein samples in minute quantities of protein samples, e.g., from two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis, is an everyday problem in biology laboratories. Here we show that computer-assisted amino acid analysis can fulfill this task. Amino acid analysis data can be used to compare the amino acid composition of an unknown protein with protein compositions in a database (compositional search). Routine amino acid analysis data can, despite a certain margin of error, be used to identify a protein. Compared to protein sequencing, amino analysis is much cheaper, faster, and allows higher sample throughput. Thus, the method may replace protein sequencing as a first attempt in identification, provided a homolog can be found in the database.