A hypothesis for the asymmetric appearance of biomolecules on earth

Yamagata, Yuki

doi:10.1016/0022-5193(66)90110-x

Cited by 267 publications

(179 citation statements)

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“…Theoretical studies revealed that very small, parityviolating weak neutral currents at the molecular level may distinguish mirror-imaged molecules and thus, be a basis for several amplification and detection mechanisms. [72][73][74][75][76] Recent literature cites claims of insignificantly small but still questionable differences seen between chiral isomers in their condensed states, like in supersaturated solutions, in crystals, in micellar aggregates, and on solid surfaces, etc. [77][78][79] Such a finding can have far-reaching implications, since, according to their propositions, these asymmetrical weak nuclear forces propagate to millions of other molecules via weak noncovalent interactions and land-up building asymmetrical population preferring a particular handedness.…”

Section: Homochiral Interaction In Hydrophobic Rod-like Polysilanes: mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonclassical forces: Seemingly insignificant but a powerful tool to control macromolecular structures

Fujiki

Saxena

2008

J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem.

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Strong chemical forces such as covalent and ionic bonds are responsible for building discrete molecules, nature dwells on noncovalent forces weaker by three orders in magnitude, like the hydrophobic effect, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals forces. Despite being weak, they possess the potential to drive spontaneous folding or unfolding of proteins and nucleic acids and the recognition between complimentary molecular surfaces. The power of these forces lies in the cooperativity with which they act, thereby generating a cumulative effect of many bonding interactions occurring together. Many ongoing research aims to translate the potential of these forces to the synthetic world to create desired structures with specific chemical functions. Achieving this offers unlimited opportunities for designing and synthesizing the most complex structures with specific applications. This highlight aims to reflect the critical role these noncovalent forces play in controlling macromolecular structures, which hold immense untapped potential for applications defying conventions, and briefly touches on the concept of homochirality in nature based on chiral and weak noncovalent interactions in synthetic nonpolar Si‐catenated polymers. It sheds some light on the discovery and characterization of Si/F‐C interactions in fluoroalkylated polysilanes in chemosensing of fluoride ions and nitroaromatics with a great sensitivity and selectivity. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 4637–4650, 2008

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Section: Homochiral Interaction In Hydrophobic Rod-like Polysilanes: mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonclassical forces: Seemingly insignificant but a powerful tool to control macromolecular structures

Fujiki

Saxena

2008

J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem.

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“…It is easy to see that the ratio of reaction rates between L-L and D-D molecules is equal to . In polymerization or crystallization, the influence of this small ratio may increase in proportion for the number of monomers in the polymer or the number of molecules in the crystal according to Yamagata's linear model (26). The probability of obtaining a homochiral polymer of n monomers is a factor n ϫ times larger for the enantiomer with the lower energy than that for the enantiomer with the higher energy.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration of the parity-violating energy difference between enantiomers

Szabó‐Nagy

Keszthelyi

1999

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Racemic mixtures of (؉) and (؊) sodium potassium tartrate, tris(1,2-ethanediamine)cobalt(III), and tris(1,2-ethanediamine)iridium(III) molecules were crystallized, and the optical activities of the resulting crystalline materials, dissolved in water, were carefully measured to study the inf luence of the parity-violating energy difference in the crystallization process. Although no effect was found in the case of tartrate, enantiomeric excess appeared in the crystallization of the cobalt and iridium complexes. These investigations, performed in our laboratory, demonstrated the contribution of the parity-violating neutral weak current to the forces acting in molecules.The electromagnetic and weak interactions were unified by Weinberg, Salam, and Glashow in the concept of the electroweak interaction. This work is reviewed in simplified form in ref.1. An important consequence of the unified theory of the electromagnetic and weak interaction is the existence of the weak neutral current that generates parity-violating interactions between electrons and electrons and between electrons and neutrons. Experiments involving elementary particles and atoms confirmed the theory. In enantiomeric molecules, the interaction induces a small difference between the energies of the different enantiomers. The theory was extended to calculations of the parity-violating energy difference (PVED) between the L-and D-amino acids, for example. The main impetus behind these calculations was the hope of explaining the origin of the homochirality of biomolecules, i.e., the phenomenon that living systems contain nearly completely L-amino acids and D-sugars (2). The asymmetry found in the weak neutral current incited the idea of the universal unity of the effects of parity violation in the inanimate and living world (for reviews see refs. 3-5). Other asymmetric forces also were considered as possible causes of homochirality. On the other hand, strong arguments exist that homochirality might have originated by spontaneous processes that appeared in the evolving system of molecules before life existed (6). The questions now are: was homochirality a result of spontaneous processes or of the action of a certain asymmetric physical agent and if the latter, was it the parity-violating weak interaction?In the first approach to estimating PVED, Rein (7) calculated a difference of the order of 10 Ϫ13 eV between the binding energies of L-and D-alanine. According to Gajzágó and Marx (8) an estimate of 10 Ϫ13 eV is rather optimistic for the energy splitting between the mirror molecules. The same order of magnitude was found by Zel'dovich et al. (9). Later, in the calculations of Rein et al. (10) PVED Ϸ10 Ϫ17 kT (kT ϭ 0.025 eV at room temperature) was found for a model molecule (twisted ethylene), but the sign of the effect could not be determined. From the works of Mason, Tranter, and MacDermott (11-15), we know that the value of PVED is Ϸ1 ϫ 10 Ϫ17 kT for the amino acids, the L-amino acids having the lower energy. New calculations demonstrated th...

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“…On the other hand, the tiny parity-violating energy difference between two enantiomers [11], circularly-polarized bremsstrahlung [12][13][14], magnetochiral photochemical effects [15][16][17][18], and the asymmetric photochemical induction of an enantiomeric excess by circularly polarized light (CPL) [19][20][21] are defined as potential determinate mechanisms where an external physical agent (force) induces an optical activity in the products formed. The most promising one among them appears to be the processes involving CPL, which has been proved to produce significant and reproducible enantiomeric excesses in racemic or prochiral precursors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photochirogenesis: Photochemical Models on the Origin of Biomolecular Homochirality

et al. 2010

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Current research focuses on a better understanding of the origin of biomolecular asymmetry by the identification and detection of the possibly first chiral molecules that were involved in the appearance and evolution of life on Earth. We have reasons to assume that these molecules were specific chiral amino acids. Chiral amino acids have been identified in both chondritic meteorites and simulated interstellar ices. Present research reasons that circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation was identified in interstellar environments and an asymmetric interstellar photon-molecule interaction might have triggered biomolecular symmetry breaking. We review on the possible prebiotic interaction of 'chiral photons' in the form of circularly polarized light, with early chiral organic molecules. We will highlight recent studies on enantioselective photolysis of racemic amino acids by circularly polarized light and experiments on the asymmetric OPEN ACCESS Symmetry 2010, 2 1056 photochemical synthesis of amino acids from only one C and one N containing molecules by simulating interstellar environments. Both approaches are based on circular dichroic transitions of amino acids that will be presented as well.

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A hypothesis for the asymmetric appearance of biomolecules on earth

Cited by 267 publications

References 3 publications

Nonclassical forces: Seemingly insignificant but a powerful tool to control macromolecular structures

Nonclassical forces: Seemingly insignificant but a powerful tool to control macromolecular structures

Demonstration of the parity-violating energy difference between enantiomers

Photochirogenesis: Photochemical Models on the Origin of Biomolecular Homochirality

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