The detection of potential species-specific proteins by 2-DE was
later investigated by a classical bottom-up proteomics approach
(Fig. 1). Spots of interestwere subjected to tryptic digestion and the recovered
peptides were analyzed by MS. The ability of the PMF methodology
was explored analyzing ten commercial closely related species of
the Merlucciidae family (Carrera, et al., 2006). MALDI-TOF mass fingerprints
of the sarcoplasmic protein PRVB defined a set of molecular fish
authentication markers, relying in the presence or absence of
species-specific peptide masses, providing: (i) the selective differentiation
between the genus Merluccius and Macruronus, (ii) the classification
of the hake species in two groups according to their geographic
precedence, American or Euro-African hakes, and (iii) the unequivocal
identification of several hake species.