Parity-violating energy differences of chiral minerals and the origin of biomolecular homochirality
| Autor: | G. E. Tranter |
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| Rok vydání: | 1985 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Nature. 318:172-173 |
| ISSN: | 1476-4687 0028-0836 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/318172a0 |
| Popis: | The biochemistry of terrestrial organisms is based on chiral (handed) molecules, with one of the two possible series of enantiomers (mirror-image isomers) being predominant. Specifically, terrestrial biochemistry is homochirally supported by L-α-amino acids and D-sugars to the almost complete exclusion of the enantiomeric D-α-amino acids and L-sugars. This particular homochiral selection may be a result of very small differences between the electronic energies of enantiomeric prebiotic molecules due to the parity-violating weak interactions. The energy differences are, however, so small for simple chiral molecules, that the propagation of homochirality would require a dissymmetry amplification mechanism involving both large quantities of reactants and a long reaction time. An alternative theory, presented here, considering the effects of the parity-violating weak interactions in crystalline enantio-selective prebiotic catalysts, such as the clay silicates, may require considerably less amplification. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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