Summary and implications of reported amino acid concentrations in the Murchison meteorite
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (USA)
A study of literature reports of the concentrations of amino acids in extracts from the Murchison meteorite shows that many of the concentration ratios are constant. There are two possible interpretations of these ratios. One is that they are controlled by the pathways through which the amino acids formed, from which it follows that the amino acids are distributed in the same proportions throughout the meteorite. The other interpretation is that the ratios result from the analytical procedures used to extract the amino acids from the meteorite. These methods rely heavily on high-temperature (100{degree}C) aqueous extraction and subsequent high-temperature acid hydrolysis. A correlation was observed in the present study between the relative concentrations of several amino acids in the meteorite extracts and their relative aqueous solubilities at 100{degree}C. The extract solutions are dilute, and far from the saturation limits, but these correlations suggest that the sampling procedure affects directly the reported concentrations for these amino acids. If the extraction process does not bias the results, and all extractable amino acids are removed from meteorite samples, then the properties of amino acids which control both their solubilities and their concentrations in the meteorite need to be established. The possibility of sampling bias needs to be tested experimentally before concluding that extraction is complete, and that the constant relative abundances indicate that the relative concentrations of amino acids are homogeneous in the meteorite.
- OSTI ID:
- 6106097
- Journal Information:
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; (USA), Vol. 54:11; ISSN 0016-7037
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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