Probing combinatorial library diversity by mass spectrometry

The feasibility of a ''massively parallel'' mass spectrometric method for probing combinatorial library diversity is addressed theoretically for the example of computer-generated mass distributions of combinatorially synthesized peptide libraries containing between two and seven amino acids. We study the behavior of several ''global'' (integral) parameters of such mass distributions-mass centroid, dispersion, skewness, and kurtosis. The centroid and dispersion are shown to carry information that may characterize the completeness of the synthetic effort. ''Local'' mass distribution parameters, e.g., ''mass density'' (number of peptides per mass interval), are also examined. The practical implementation and eventual limitations of such an approach are discussed as well.