Near-infrared spectrophotometric determination of tri- and tetrapeptides

A new method based on the near infrared technique has been developed for the noninvasive and nondestructive determination of the identity and sequences of amino acid residues in small peptides, The method is capable of distinguishing not only peptides with very similar structures (e.g., Gly-Ala-Ala, Gly-Ala-Leu, Leu-Gly-Gly and Gly-Leu-Leu-Gly, Gly-Leu-Gly-Gly, Gly-Gly-Ala-Gly) but also peptides with the same amino acid residues but different sequences (e.g., Gly-Ala-Ala, Ala-Gly-Ala, Ala-Ala-Gly and Gly-Gly-Gly-Ala, Gly-Gly-Ala-Gly). (C) 2000 Academic Press.