Abstract: Edman degradation reaction was carried out on microfluidic chip packed with C₁₈ beads as reaction cartridge, which was automatically manipulated by a sequential injection system. The program for sequential injection system, the column material for adsorption of protein or peptide and the temperature for Edman degradation reaction were optimized. The experiment results show that the N-terminal residue of protein or peptide can be obtained by Edman degradation on microfluidic chip with the advantages of faster reaction rate, less consumption of protein or peptide. The reported automatic method would be useful for increasing the confidence level of protein identification.

Key words: Edman degradation, Sequential injection system, Microfluidic chip, Protein sequencing