'Longest common prefix' accelerates analysis of biologically active substances

Tandem mass spectrometry can present numerous challenges to the analysis of biologically active substances, according to a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Writing in BMC Bioinformatics, they explain that expanding protein databases and post-translational modifications have increased the demand placed on computing systems in recent years.

However, tandem mass spectrometry remains "an important technology for peptide and protein identification".

One solution to the problem could be to seek the "longest common prefix" in a given data set, a structure always found associated with a given suffix array.

By adjusting the algorithm, they say it is possible to ensure no candidate peptides are missed, even due to enzymatic digestion.

Removing redundant candidates from the target database being analysed helps to accelerate the process, cutting down the overall identification time taken.

BMC Bioinformatics specialises in research focusing on the use of computing capabilities to analyse biologically active substances and similar data sets.