The use of 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) as a new matrix for in-source decay (ISD) of peptides including mono-and di-phosphorylated peptides in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) is described. The use of 5-ASA in MALDI-ISD has been evaluated from several standpoints: hydrogen-donating ability, the outstanding sharpness of molecular and fragment ion peaks, and the presence of interference peaks such as metastable peaks and multiply charged ions. The hydrogen-donating ability of several matrices such as ␣-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA), 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2,5-DHB), 1,5-diaminonaphthalene (1,5-DAN), sinapinic acid (SA), and 5-ASA was evaluated by using the peak abundance of a reduction product [M ϩ 2H ϩ H] ϩ to that of non-reduced protonated molecule [M ϩ H] ϩ of the cyclic peptide vasopressin which contains a disulfide bond (S-S). The order of hydrogendonating ability was 1,5-DAN Ͼ 5-ASA Ͼ 2,5-DHB Ͼ SA ϭ CHCA. The chemicals 1,5-DAN and 5-ASA in particular can be classified as reductive matrices. 5-ASA gave peaks with higher sharpness for protonated molecules and fragment ions than other matrices and did not give any interference peaks such as multiply-protonated ions and metastable ions in the ISD mass spectra of the peptides used. Particularly, 1,5-DAN and 5-ASA gave very little metastable peaks. This indicates that 1,5-DAN and 5-ASA are more "cool" than other matrices. The 1,5-DAN and 5-ASA can therefore be termed "reductive cool" matrix. T he role of mass spectrometry (MS) in protein sciences such as proteomics has become increasingly important due to its outstanding sensitivity and rapidity. It is of importance to recognize that the analysis of proteins using MS generally pertains to the analysis of peptides obtained upon enzymatic digestion of proteins. MS coupled to soft ionization methods such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) [1][2][3] and electrospray ionization (ESI) [4,5] have been used to obtain qualitative information for peptide-mass fingerprinting (PMF), amino acid sequencing and analysis of post-translational modifications (PTMs), and quantitative information about protein(s) expressed from a genome [6,7]. The most valuable information for protein identification including PTMs is the amino acid sequences that are available from tandem mass spectrometry and other MS degradation methods.Of the mass spectrometric dissociation methods used for identifying proteins, electron capture dissociation (ECD) [8] and electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) [9] coupled to ESI and in-source decay (ISD) coupled to MALDI [10] have been noted from the standpoint of specific cleavage at the N-C␣ bond on the peptide backbone because conventional methods such as collision-induced dissociation (CID) leads to nonspecific cleavage of the peptide backbone and the loss of PTM functional groups [11]. The nonspecific cleavage gives backbone cleaved fragments such as a-, b-, x-, and y-series ions (Scheme 1 upper [12] and the loss of NH 3 and/or H 2 O from t...