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BY-NC-ND 3.0 license Open Access Published by De Gruyter June 2, 2014

Plural Origins of the Molecular Homochirality in Our Biota

  • Roberto Dias Lins , Thereza Amelia Soares and Ricardo Ferreira

Abstract

We describe results of computer simulation calculations of mixed and homochiral oligoribotides showing that it is possible to bind ʟ( D)-monomers at the term in al positions of chains built from D (L )-ribotides, but insertion at internal positions produces a large in stability of the chains. Coupled with aproposed new mechanism for the growth of these lin ear polymers in prebiotic conditions, our results imply that enantiomericcross-inhibition could have been bypassed to make all-D(ʟ) oligoribotidesdominant. We also show that racemic amino acids can form stable peptide β-strands, which rules out a similar origin for modern L -amino acids. Alternative schemes are proposed to account for the homochiralities of the amino acids and of other bio molecules.

Received: 1995-8-15
Revised: 1995-10-19
Published Online: 2014-6-2
Published in Print: 1996-2-1

© 1946 – 2014: Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

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