1985 Volume 97 Issue 5 Pages 1521-1524
We examined the possibility of chemical evolution in superheated hydrothermal environments and found the formation of microspheres at 250°C and above from a mixture of glycine, alanine, valine, and aspartic acid. The microspheres did not form at lower temperatures and consisted of silicates and peptide-like polymers that contained imide bonds and amino acid residues having an abundance of valine. The results show the possibility of thermophilic cellular structures, which might be adopted by the extremely thermophilic organisms, if they exist, reported by Baross and Deming.