Spectral Deconvolution identifies and relates the components of multiply-charged electrospray data in order to calculate their molecular weights. In the electrospray process, large molecules with multiple charge-attracting sites, such as peptides and proteins, become multiply charged. This results in multiply-charged analyte ions with mass-to-charge ratios (m/z) within the range of quadrupole MS. The process for performing Spectral Deconvolution is as follows:
The location of ions in the spectrum are determined.
An evaluation is performed to determine which ions belong to the same chemical component. This involves applying a series of consecutive charge states to a set of ions to determine if they give the same molecular weight. When they do, the ions in the set are presumed to be from the same component.
The m/z values for each ion in the component set are transformed to the corresponding mass values, resulting in the final mass vs. abundance spectrum ion.
A curve-fitting algorithm or centroid calculation is applied to this ion to determine the actual molecular weight assigned to the component.
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Spectral Deconvolution is a method of transforming a multiply-charged spectrum into an uncharged spectrum and calculating the molecular weight of its components. |