Kou, QiangWu, SiLiu, Xiaowen2016-05-242016-05-242014Kou, Q., Wu, S., & Liu, X. (2014). A new scoring function for top-down spectral deconvolution. BMC Genomics, 15(1), 1140. http://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-11401471-2164https://hdl.handle.net/1805/9625BACKGROUND: Top-down mass spectrometry plays an important role in intact protein identification and characterization. Top-down mass spectra are more complex than bottom-up mass spectra because they often contain many isotopomer envelopes from highly charged ions, which may overlap with one another. As a result, spectral deconvolution, which converts a complex top-down mass spectrum into a monoisotopic mass list, is a key step in top-down spectral interpretation. RESULTS: In this paper, we propose a new scoring function, L-score, for evaluating isotopomer envelopes. By combining L-score with MS-Deconv, a new software tool, MS-Deconv+, was developed for top-down spectral deconvolution. Experimental results showed that MS-Deconv+ outperformed existing software tools in top-down spectral deconvolution. CONCLUSIONS: L-score shows high discriminative ability in identification of isotopomer envelopes. Using L-score, MS-Deconv+ reports many correct monoisotopic masses missed by other software tools, which are valuable for proteoform identification and characterization.en-USAttribution 3.0 United StatesMass SpectrometryProteinsanalysisArticle