Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, United States.
Anal Chem. 2017 Jan 17;89(2):1329-1337. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b04338. Epub 2016 Dec 24.
Amino acids are fundamental building blocks of terrestrial life as well as ubiquitous byproducts of abiotic reactions. In order to distinguish between amino acids formed by abiotic versus biotic processes it is possible to use chemical distributions to identify patterns unique to life. This article describes two capillary electrophoresis methods capable of resolving 17 amino acids found in high abundance in both biotic and abiotic samples (seven enantiomer pairs d/l-Ala, -Asp, -Glu, -His, -Leu, -Ser, -Val and the three achiral amino acids Gly, β-Ala, and GABA). To resolve the 13 neutral amino acids one method utilizes a background electrolyte containing γ-cyclodextrin and sodium taurocholate micelles. The acidic amino acid enantiomers were resolved with γ-cyclodextrin alone. These methods allow detection limits down to 5 nM for the neutral amino acids and 500 nM for acidic amino acids and were used to analyze samples collected from Mono Lake with minimal sample preparation.
氨基酸是陆地生命的基本组成部分，也是无生命反应普遍存在的副产品。为了区分非生物和生物过程形成的氨基酸，可以使用化学分布来识别生命特有的模式。本文描述了两种毛细管电泳方法，能够分辨出在生物和非生物样品中都大量存在的 17 种氨基酸（7 对对映体 d/l-Ala、-Asp、-Glu、-His、-Leu、-Ser、-Val 和 3 种非手性氨基酸 Gly、β-Ala 和 GABA）。为了分辨 13 种中性氨基酸，一种方法使用含有γ-环糊精和牛磺胆酸钠胶束的背景电解质。酸性氨基酸对映体则单独用γ-环糊精分辨。这些方法可将中性氨基酸的检测限降低至 5 nM，酸性氨基酸的检测限降低至 500 nM，并用于分析从莫诺湖采集的样品，样品制备量极少。
