ABSTRACT
Theoretical and practical advances in the chemistry of stepwise degradation of proteins have resulted in the development of an instrument by Edman and Begg in 1967 known as a liquid phase or spinning cup sequenator, the commercial version of which is the Series 890 Beckman Automated Protein/Peptide Sequenator. One of the major drawbacks of liquid phase sequencing is repeated washing with polar and nonpolar solvents, which significantly contributes to the sample loss from the cup. Beckman Automated Protein/Peptide Sequenator Series 890B, and later on 890C, were two of the most widely used instruments for amino acid sequence analysis. Coupling is the limiting factor for efficient amino acid sequence analysis. All the versions of protein/peptide sequenators were capable of performing extended amino acid sequence analysis on rather large quantities of samples; however, extended sequential degradation on Beckman Instruments of those molecules available in small quantities was a formidable task.
