Analysis of cyclotides in viola ignobilis by nano liquid chromatography fourier transform mass spectrometry

Cyclotides are macrocyclic knotted peptides originating from plants. they are extremely stable and have a range of bioactivities including anti-hiv and insecticidal activity. given the stability of the cyclotide framework,there is interest in using these peptides as scaffolds in drug design. in the current study,we have shown that nano-lc fourier transform mass spectrometry (ftms) is an effective method of analyzing cyclotides in plants. in addition,we have used this technique to find cyclotides in a novel species,viola ignobilis (violaceae plant family),which was collected from the east azerbaijan province of iran. varv peptide a,cycloviolacin b2,and cycloviolacin o8 were found in this species. this study provides a novel method for directly analyzing cyclotide sequences without enzymatic digestion and further information regarding the distribution of cyclotides in plant species. © 2011 bentham science publishers ltd.