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.
© 1946 – 2014: Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
