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Interlaboratory Comparison of Amino Acid Enantiomeric Ratios in Fossil Pleistocene Mollusks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John F. Wehmiller
John F. Wehmiller*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19711
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Abstract

Enantiomeric (d/l) ratios of eight amino acids in three homogeneous powdered fossil Pleistocene mollusk samples have been compared. Eleven laboratories have contributed results to this effort. Three gas chromatographic methods and one ion-exchange chromatographic method were used. In general, the coefficients of variation (c.v.) are best for alanine, glutamic acid, and aspartic acid (3–8%). For leucine and phenylalanine, the c.v.'s are between 5 and 10%. For isoleucine, proline, and valine the c.v.'s range from 10 to 18%. Individual laboratories usually report analytical precision of between 2 and 5%, but it is clear that significant differences between laboratories' results are often encountered, and that these analytical differences could, in some cases, lead to very significant differences (25% or more) in age estimates based upon enantiomeric ratios. Multiple analyses of desalted hydrolyzates of these powder samples suggest that interlaboratory differences are often caused by instrumental and/or derivatization procedures rather than the wet-chemical sample preparative steps. It is proposed that the powder samples described here be used in all future publications of fossil amino acid enantiomeric ratio data.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , July 1984 , pp. 109 - 120
Copyright
University of Washington

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