Immunochemical methods for the peptidomic analysis of tachykinin peptides and their precursors

The tachykinins represent the largest known peptide family and are responsible for a range of pleiotropic functions in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Recent research has shown a diversity of mechanisms such as mRNA splicing, precursor processing and post-translation modification that can lead to a complex and continually expanding repertoire of tachykinin peptides. The peptidomic analysis of the tachykinins has been hindered by the lack of specific methodologies to capture, purify and characterise each tachykinin. This chapter summarises some of the methods that have been developed in order to further purify and characterise individual groups of tachykinin peptides from the peptidome.