Chiroptical activity of hydroxycarboxylic acids with implications for the origin of biological homochiralityOPEN ACCESS 

· by · in ,

Jana Bocková, Nykola C. Jones, Uwe J. Meierhenrich, Søren V. Hoffmann & Cornelia Meinert

Communications Chemistry, Volume 4, Article number: 86 (2021)

LINK (OPEN ACCESS)
PDF (OPEN ACCESS)

“Circularly polarised light (CPL) interacting with interstellar organic molecules might have imparted chiral bias and hence preluded prebiotic evolution of biomolecular homochirality. The l-enrichment of extra-terrestrial amino acids in meteorites, as opposed to no detectable excess in monocarboxylic acids and amines, has previously been attributed to their intrinsic interaction with stellar CPL revealed by substantial differences in their chiroptical signals. Recent analyses of meteoritic hydroxycarboxylic acids (HCAs) – potential co-building blocks of ancestral proto-peptides – indicated a chiral bias toward the l-enantiomer of lactic acid. Here we report on novel anisotropy spectra of several HCAs using a synchrotron radiation electronic circular dichroism spectrophotometer to support the re-evaluation of chiral biomarkers of extra-terrestrial origin in the context of absolute photochirogenesis. We found that irradiation by CPL which would yield l-excess in amino acids would also yield l-excess in aliphatic chain HCAs, including lactic acid and mandelic acid, in the examined conditions. Only tartaric acid would show “unnatural” d-enrichment, which makes it a suitable target compound for further assessing the relevance of the CPL scenario.”

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. Shock experiments with an l-alanine solution and implications for the cometary delivery of amino acids and dimers with enantiomeric excesses to the early Earth
  2. Chiroptical activity of gas-phase propylene oxide predicting the handedness of interstellar circular polarization in the presolar nebulaOPEN ACCESS 
  3. The Detection of Aromatic Amino Acids in CR Chondrites Suggests They are Prebiotically Plausible
  4. Low total abundances and a predominance of n-ω-amino acids in enstatite chondrites: Implications for thermal stability of amino acids in the inner solar system
  5. Amino Acid Chiral Selection Via Weak Interactions in Stellar Environments: Implications for the Origin of LifeOPEN ACCESS 
  6. Elemental sulfur, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon monoxide-driven dimerization of glycine at sub-millimolar concentrations: Implications for the origin of lifeOPEN ACCESS 
  7. Origin of alkylphosphonic acids in the interstellar mediumOPEN ACCESS 
  8. A new family of extraterrestrial amino acids in the Murchison meteoriteOPEN ACCESS 
  9. Meteoritic amino acids as chemical tracers of parent body chemistries
  10. One-pot synthesis of amino acid precursors with insoluble organic matter in planetesimals with aqueous activityOPEN ACCESS 
Tags: , , , , , , , ,