MAPPING POSTTRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATIONS OF VIRAL-PROTEINS BY MASS-SPECTROMETRY

The impact of fast atom bombardment ionisation on the capacity of mass spectrometry (MS) to produce structural data on biopolymers is discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on viral proteins with specific reference to proteins isolated on a microscale from Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and complementarity with other protein analysis techniques. This is elaborated by reviewing strategies for analysis of post-translational modifications of these proteins in relation to variation in virulence of different strains of NDV. Definition of proteolytic activation, glycosylation, phosphorylation and amino-terminal acylation of NDV proteins forms the substance of the discussion together with detection of strain specific sequence variations between the proteins. The importance of such analytical capability is presented in the contexts of molecular virology and biotechnology applications. The potential for more recent advances in ionisation techniques to enhance the role of MS in viral protein analysis is also discussed.