Non-Racemic Amino Acid Production by Ultraviolet Irradiation of Achiral Interstellar Ice Analogs With Circularly Polarized Light

Marcellus, Pierre de; Meinert, Cornelia; Nuevo, Michel; Filippi, Jean‐Jacques; Danger, Grégoire; Deboffle, D.; Nahon, Laurent; d’Hendecourt, Louis Le Sergeant; Meierhenrich, Uwe J.

doi:10.1088/2041-8205/727/2/l27

Cited by 173 publications

(149 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…As well known, even primitive meteorites have known an episode of thermal and aqueous metamorphism so that a study of its effect on original and genuine organics obtained from photochemical reactions as described above may also be considered and can be easily simulated in non-directed experiments similar to the ones related to extraterrestrial ices evolution. Recently, it has been reported that irradiation of ice analogs using Circularly Polarized UV light on the DESIRS beamline on the synchrotron radiation facility SOLEIL in France, has produced a proteic amino acid, alanine, with a slight but significant enantiomeric excess, similar to the ones observed in some primitive chondrites from the solar nebula [31]. In the framework of a plausible astrophysical scenario, it is then proposed that a direct link between organic materials from primitive chondrites with photochemistry of interstellar ices exists, including a possible photochemistry step using some CPL whose existence in regions of high mass star formation regions is now documented [32].…”

Section: Relevance Of Organic Residues To the Problem Of Prebiotic Mamentioning

confidence: 72%

MICMOC/MICMOS: Photochemistry of van der Waals solids and the rise of the organic molecular complexity

d’Hendecourt

Marcellus

Modica

2014

BIO Web of Conferences

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Abstract. Ices of well-known composition are widely observed in molecular clouds out of which stars, planets and debris (asteroids, comets) will form. These ices are naturally subjected to energy input in the form of UV photons and charged cosmic particles which are able to start a very rich radical chemistry in the solid state. These phenomena are simulated in the MICMOC experiment which focuses on the possible prebiotic significance of the organic residues that are formed at room temperature. Further than MICMOC, we propose a general prospective of the evolution of this experiment toward the concept of non-directed experiments that may allow simulating the very first steps from the inanimate molecular world to selective pathways toward self-replicating autocatalytic and heterotrophic molecules that could be considered, for a physicist a template for "minimal" life.

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Section: Relevance Of Organic Residues To the Problem Of Prebiotic Mamentioning

confidence: 72%

MICMOC/MICMOS: Photochemistry of van der Waals solids and the rise of the organic molecular complexity

d’Hendecourt

Marcellus

Modica

2014

BIO Web of Conferences

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“…However, L-enantiomeric excesses (Lee) have been detected for some non-protein amino acids, such as α-methyl-α-amino acids, which have Lee of up to 18.5 % in Murchison, 6.0 % in Murray and 15.3 % in Orgueil Pizzarello et al 2003). Possible reasons for this excess include UV circularly polarized light (UV-CPL) in the presolar cloud (Bailey et al 1998;Bonner and Rubenstein 1987;Lucas et al 2005), a mechanism supported by laboratory simulations (de Marcellus et al 2011;Modica et al 2014), and/or solid-solution phase behaviour leading to the formation of conglomerate enantiopure solids during crystallization .…”

Section: Exogenous Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 90%

Astrobiology and the Possibility of Life on Earth and Elsewhere…

et al. 2015

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Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary scientific field not only focused on the search of extraterrestrial life, but also on deciphering the key environmental parameters that have enabled the emergence of life on Earth. Understanding these physical and chemical parameters is fundamental knowledge necessary not only for discovering life or signs of life on other planets, but also for understanding our own terrestrial environment. Therefore, astrobiology pushes us to combine different perspectives such as the conditions on the primitive Earth, the Team of interdisciplinary scientists focused on astrobiology to review the profound transformations in the field that have occurred since the beginning of the new century. The present paper is an interdisciplinary review of current research in astrobiology, covering the major advances and main outlooks in the field. The following subjects will be reviewed and most recent discoveries will be highlighted: the new understanding of planetary system formation including the specificity of the Earth among the diversity of planets, the origin of water on Earth and its unique combined properties among solvents for the emergence of life, the idea that the Earth could have been habitable during the Hadean Era, the inventory of endogenous and exogenous sources of organic matter and new concepts about how chemistry could evolve towards biological molecules and biological systems. In addition, many new findings show the remarkable potential life has for adaptation and survival in extreme environments. All those results from different fields of science are guiding our perspectives and strategies to look for life in other Solar System objects as well as beyond, in extrasolar worlds.

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“…Here, 13 C-labelled achiral cosmic ice mixtures are irradiated with CPSR at beamline DESIRS (SOLEIL, France). In a previous measurement campaign, the irradiation experiments produced significant ees recorded for the amino acid alanine [8]. Multidimensional gas chromatography allowed us to determine an ee L of -1.3 % due to right-handed-CPL irradiation and +0.7 % due to left-handed-CPL irradiation.…”

Section: How Did Life Originate?mentioning

confidence: 95%

The origin of biomolecular asymmetry – Insights from cometary and meteoritic matter

Meinert

Meierhenrich

Nahon

et al. 2014

BIO Web of Conferences

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Abstract. The chemistry of life is purely stereospecific. The fundamental biopolymers -proteins and nucleic acids -are intrinsically chiral due to their molecular building blocks, namely L-amino acids and D-sugars. Hypotheses for the evolutionary origin of that strict stereochemical selection include the asymmetric photochemistry model by which circularly polarized (CP) photons induced an enantiomeric excess in chiral organic molecules via asymmetric photolysis. The transfer of a distinct chirality from chiral photons to organic molecules is assumed to have occurred in environments of interstellar molecular clouds. This model is strengthened by the observation of CP light in the star-forming region of Orion. Due to our laboratory experiments mimicking cometary ice evolution, we show that molecules of prebiotic interest such as amino and diamino acids are formed in inter/protostellar environments and might have been subjected to CP vacuum-UV radiation before and during their space journey to the early Earth. How did Life originate?The goal is to understand the scenarios by which extraterrestrial organic matter has seeded the surface of the primitive Earth and propose an astrophysical explanation for the origin of asymmetry in chiral protein and nucleotide precursors that may have led later to homochirality an assumed prerequisite for Life on Earth [1].Why were left-handed amino acids selected for its architecture? Topical research reasons that circularly polarized light (CPL) -observed in star-forming regions -might induce an enantiomeric excess (ee) in chiral organic molecules via asymmetric interstellar photon-molecule interactions [2,3]. A major challenge of our research is to shed some light on the asymmetric mechanism for the formation of chiral prebiotic molecules based on their interaction with UV-CPL as an external chiral force with particular emphasis on absolute asymmetric photolysis and synthesis. Therefore, we are identifying various chiral organic molecules and quantifying any small ee in carbonaceous chondrites by using the highly increased resolution power of novel multidimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) [4]. Detected ees are compared with those produced under controlled asymmetric photolysis experiments using circularly polarized synchrotron radiation (CPSR) at the synchrotron radiation source SOLEIL (France). First promising

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Non-Racemic Amino Acid Production by Ultraviolet Irradiation of Achiral Interstellar Ice Analogs With Circularly Polarized Light

Cited by 173 publications

References 40 publications

MICMOC/MICMOS: Photochemistry of van der Waals solids and the rise of the organic molecular complexity

MICMOC/MICMOS: Photochemistry of van der Waals solids and the rise of the organic molecular complexity

Astrobiology and the Possibility of Life on Earth and Elsewhere…

The origin of biomolecular asymmetry – Insights from cometary and meteoritic matter

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