Identification and significance of 3β-ethyl steranes in sediments and petroleum

Roger E. Summons; Robert J. Capon

doi:10.1016/0016-7037(91)90116-M

Identification and significance of 3β-ethyl steranes in sediments and petroleum

Roger E. Summons^*, Robert J. Capon

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

44 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

3β-Ethyl steranes (5a-c) occur in ancient sediments and petroleum, particularly those of Paleozoic and Proterozoic age. This newly recognised modification to the sterane ring system has no known direct counterpart in the steroid metabolism of extant organisms. When they are present in a sample the pattern of side-chain substitution and some aspects of the isomer distributions of co-occurring 3β-ethyl steranes (5a-c), 3β-methyl steranes (3a-c), 2α-methyl steranes (2a-c), and desmethyl steranes (1a-c) are similar. This suggests that these ring A-alkylated steranes are not synthesised de novo by their source organism(s) but arise via microbial modifications to sedimentary sterenes during the early stages of diagenesis.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2391-2395
Number of pages	5
Journal	Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Volume	55
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(91)90116-M
Publication status	Published - 1991

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10.1016/0016-7037(91)90116-M

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title = "Identification and significance of 3β-ethyl steranes in sediments and petroleum",

abstract = "3β-Ethyl steranes (5a-c) occur in ancient sediments and petroleum, particularly those of Paleozoic and Proterozoic age. This newly recognised modification to the sterane ring system has no known direct counterpart in the steroid metabolism of extant organisms. When they are present in a sample the pattern of side-chain substitution and some aspects of the isomer distributions of co-occurring 3β-ethyl steranes (5a-c), 3β-methyl steranes (3a-c), 2α-methyl steranes (2a-c), and desmethyl steranes (1a-c) are similar. This suggests that these ring A-alkylated steranes are not synthesised de novo by their source organism(s) but arise via microbial modifications to sedimentary sterenes during the early stages of diagenesis.",

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T1 - Identification and significance of 3β-ethyl steranes in sediments and petroleum

AU - Summons, Roger E.

AU - Capon, Robert J.

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N2 - 3β-Ethyl steranes (5a-c) occur in ancient sediments and petroleum, particularly those of Paleozoic and Proterozoic age. This newly recognised modification to the sterane ring system has no known direct counterpart in the steroid metabolism of extant organisms. When they are present in a sample the pattern of side-chain substitution and some aspects of the isomer distributions of co-occurring 3β-ethyl steranes (5a-c), 3β-methyl steranes (3a-c), 2α-methyl steranes (2a-c), and desmethyl steranes (1a-c) are similar. This suggests that these ring A-alkylated steranes are not synthesised de novo by their source organism(s) but arise via microbial modifications to sedimentary sterenes during the early stages of diagenesis.

AB - 3β-Ethyl steranes (5a-c) occur in ancient sediments and petroleum, particularly those of Paleozoic and Proterozoic age. This newly recognised modification to the sterane ring system has no known direct counterpart in the steroid metabolism of extant organisms. When they are present in a sample the pattern of side-chain substitution and some aspects of the isomer distributions of co-occurring 3β-ethyl steranes (5a-c), 3β-methyl steranes (3a-c), 2α-methyl steranes (2a-c), and desmethyl steranes (1a-c) are similar. This suggests that these ring A-alkylated steranes are not synthesised de novo by their source organism(s) but arise via microbial modifications to sedimentary sterenes during the early stages of diagenesis.

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JO - Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

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ER -

Identification and significance of 3β-ethyl steranes in sediments and petroleum

Abstract

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