PNNL

Abstract

In mass spectrometry-based bottom-up proteomics, data-independent acquisition (DIA) is an emerging technique due to its comprehensive and unbiased sampling of precursor ions. However, current DIA methods use wide precursor isolation windows, resulting in co- fragmentation and complex mixture spectra. Thus, conventional database searching tools that identify peptides by interpreting individual MS/MS spectra are inherently limited in analyzing DIA data. Here we discuss an alternative approach, peptide-centric analysis, which tests directly for the presence and absence of query peptides. We discuss how peptide-centric analysis resolves some limitations of traditional spectrum-centric analysis, and we outline the benefits of peptide-centric analysis in general.