Biochemical L-D stereoselection by weak neutral currents: A mathematical model
✍ Scribed by K. Tennakone
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1984
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 333 KB
- Volume
- 105
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0009-2614
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✦ Synopsis
A model is presented to show that a minute difference AE in the activation energies of L and D isomers of biomolecules is sufficient to achieve optical stereoxlection in biochemral evolution_ The limits on AI? imposed by thermodynamic fluc-1. Iutroduftion Minute asymmetries in fundamental interactions could give rke to pronounced asymmetries in the macroscopic world. Recent developments in elementaryparticle physics suggest that the observed baryonantibaryon asymmetry in the universe [l-3] is a result of small violations in CP and baryon number conservation [4] _ An even more amazing possibility is that life has orginated from a biochemical right-left asymmetry introduced by panty violations in the weak interaction_ In biochemical evolution, L-D stereoselection 1s a necessary step for the development of advanced forms of life [5-91, possibly because enantiomerically pure or enriched biopolymers are more stable towards degradation than the corresponding racemic polymers [ lo]_ Several authors have proposed that this stereoselection is caused by parity violations in the weak interaction [11,12] _ After the discovery of weak neutral currents, much attention has been gven to this idea,asneutralcurrents