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Origins of biomolecular handedness

Abstract

Classical mechanisms proposed for the transition from racemic geochemistry to homochiral biochemistry in terrestrial evolution generally ascribe to chance the particular handed choice of the L-amino acids and the D-sugars by self-replicating systems. The parity-violating weak neutral current interaction gives rise to an energy difference between a chiral molecule and its mirror-image isomer, resulting in a small stabilization of the L-amino acids and the L-peptides in the α-helix and the β-sheet conformation relative to the corresponding enantiomer. The energy difference suffices to break the chiral symmetry of autocatalytic racemic reaction sequences in an open non-equilibrium system.

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Mason, S. Origins of biomolecular handedness. Nature 311, 19–23 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/311019a0

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