Development of chiral-isomer specific isotope analysis of amino acids, for advances in studies for the interaction between life and organic compounds

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24684041
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Geochemistry/Astrochemistry
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Chikaraishi Yoshito 国立研究開発法人海洋研究開発機構, 生物地球化学研究分野, 主任研究員 (50455490)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: アミノ酸 / 安定同位体 / 光学活性 / 窒素 / 炭素 / 水素 / 生命

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, I challenged the development of chiral-isomer specific isotope analysis of nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen within amino acids. The results show that the isotope analysis of nitrogen and carbon is successfully achieved by using a combination of pivaloyl/isobuthyl ester derivatization with a polar GC column, resulting in a 1 sigma standard deviation being better than ± 0.5‰ based on the S/N ratio of >20 with baseline separation on the chromatogram. I also briefly confirmed that this method is widely applicable to biological (e.g., animal tissues), geological (e.g., sendiments), and extraterrestrial samples (meteorites). In contrast, the isotope analysis of hydrogen is still in the early-development stage, because I cannot control the considerable isotopic fractionation of hydrogen/deuterium on the amino group of amino acids during extraction and GC elution processes.

Free Research Field

有機地球化学