title: The stability of amino acids at submarine hydrothermal vent temperatures.
abstract: It has been postulated that amino acid stability at hydrothermal vent temperatures is controlled by a metastable thermodynamic equilibrium rather than by kinetics.  Experiments reported here demonstrate that the amino acids are irreversibly destroyed by heating at 240 degrees C and that quasi-equilibrium calculations give misleading descriptions of the experimental observations.  Equilibrium thermodynamic calculations are not applicable to organic compounds under high-temperature submarine vent conditions.
authors.affiliation: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla 92093, USA.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bada
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000409:Alanine / Q000737:chemistry*; D003653:Decarboxylation; D005021:Ethylamines / Q000737:chemistry*; D005998:Glycine / Q000737:chemistry*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D007536:Isomerism; D007930:Leucine / Q000737:chemistry*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D012623:Seawater; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D005021:Ethylamines; D014867:Water; D007930:Leucine; D000409:Alanine; D005998:Glycine; C041564:ethylamine