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Assuming enzyme-free environment, and the DNA and peptide are lyophillized, and then stored in vials under the same conditions (temperature and humidity).

On average, which would be more chemically stable,

  • in terms of backbone cleavage?
  • in terms of loss of side chain?
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  • $\begingroup$ You know what holds each of them together, don’t you? $\endgroup$
    – Jan
    Commented Nov 8, 2016 at 18:00
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, so is it correct that the answer boils down to the relative size of Gibbs Free Energy of the hydrolysis of Phosphodiester bond and Peptide bond? If it is true, where can I find these information? It seems that there's not much information on solid state stability. $\endgroup$
    – Nissa
    Commented Nov 9, 2016 at 10:15
  • $\begingroup$ Why solid state? $\endgroup$
    – Jan
    Commented Nov 9, 2016 at 19:40
  • $\begingroup$ Because the samples are freeze-dried and stored in low humidity, so I can assume the samples to be in solid state. $\endgroup$
    – Nissa
    Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 1:46
  • $\begingroup$ I would consider the liquid state, though, since they won’t be cleaved in the absence of water. $\endgroup$
    – Jan
    Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 1:48

1 Answer 1

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Well, more than 1 year has passed, and now the field of palaeo-proteomics is born, I think the verdict is clear:

The winner is PEPTIDE. Still found intact in tens of millions old extinct animals, where DNA had degraded for long.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14249

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