de novo peptide sequencing

De novo peptide sequencing refers to the process of determining the amino acid sequence of a peptide without prior knowledge of the DNA or protein it comes from. This technique is used in proteomics to analyze proteins and peptides, especially when the genomic sequence of the organism is unknown or the protein sequence is not available in databases.

The process typically involves mass spectrometry (MS), where peptides are ionized and fragmented. The mass spectrometer measures the masses of these peptide fragments. By analyzing the mass differences between the fragments, the machine learning model can infer the sequence of amino acids in the peptide.

This method is particularly useful for studying proteins from organisms with unsequenced genomes, post-translational modifications, and for discovering new proteins or variants.