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Title:
Homochirality in an Early Peptide World
Authors:
Brandenburg, Axel; Lehto, Harry J.; Lehto, Kirsi M.
Affiliation:
AA(Nordita, Copenhagen, Denmark. Nordita, AlbaNova University Center, Stockholm, Sweden), AB(Nordita, Copenhagen, Denmark. Tuorla Observatory and Physics Department, University of Turku, Finland), AC(Nordita, Copenhagen, Denmark. Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory, University of Turku, Finland)
Publication:
Astrobiology, Volume 7, Issue 5, pp. 725-732.
Publication Date:
10/2007
Origin:
ASBIO
Keywords:
Prebiotic chemistry, Asymmetric synthesis, Autocatalysis,
DOI:
10.1089/ast.2006.0093
Bibliographic Code:
2007AsBio...7..725B

Abstract

A recently proposed model of non-autocatalytic reactions in dipeptide formation that leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking and homochirality was examined. The model is governed by activation, polymerization, epimerization, and depolymerization of amino acids. Symmetry breaking was determined to result primarily from the different rates of reactions that involve homodimers and heterodimers, i.e., stereoselective reactions, and the fact that epimerization can only occur on the N-terminal residue and not on the C-terminal residue. This corresponds to an auto-inductive cyclic process that works only in one direction. It is argued that epimerization mimics autocatalytic behavior as well as mutual antagonism, both of which are known to be crucial for the production of full homochirality.
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