Asymmetric autocatalysis and its implications for the origin of homochirality.
An autocatalytic reaction in which the reaction product serves as a catalyst to produce more of itself and to suppress production of its enantiomer serves as a mechanistic model for the evolution of homochirality. The Soai reaction provided experimental confirmation of this concept, nearly 50 years after it was first proposed. This Perspective offers a rationalization of the Soai autocatalytic reaction; accounting for enantiomeric excess and rate observations, that is both simple as well as gratifying in its implications for the chemical origin of life.
Blackmond
Donna G
DG
Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom. d.blackmond@imperial.ac.uk