Methods and Algorithms for Quantitative Proteomics by Mass Spectrometry

Protein quantitation by mass spectrometry has always been a resourceful technique in protein discovery, and more recently it has leveraged the advent of clinical proteomics. A single mass spectrometry analysis experiment provides identification and quantitation of proteins as well as information on posttranslational modifications landscape. By contrast, protein array technologies are restricted to quantitation of targeted proteins and their modifications. Currently, there are an overwhelming number of quantitative mass spectrometry methods for protein and peptide quantitation. The aim here is to provide an overview of the most common mass spectrometry methods and algorithms used in quantitative proteomics and discuss the computational aspects to obtain reliable quantitative measures of proteins, peptides and their posttranslational modifications. The development of a pipeline using commercial or freely available software is one of the main challenges in data analysis of many experimental projects. Recent developments of R statistical programming language make it attractive to fully develop pipelines for quantitative proteomics. We discuss concepts of quantitative proteomics that together with current R packages can be used to build highly customizable pipelines.