title: Parity violation energy of biomolecules--I: polypeptides.
abstract: A computational algorithm is developed to compute the energy of parity-violation (E(pv)) due to weak-nuclear forces acting within chain polymers. The method is applied to estimate the magnitude of E(pv) associated with the folding of alpha-helices in polypeptide chains and, in turn, of typical proteins. Implications to the development of biological homochirality in nature are discussed in terms of a simple evolutionary model to assess the likelihood for energies of the order of the computed E(pv) to have determined the direction of natural homochirality.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi, Via G. Campi 183, 41100 Modena, Italy. cecco@unimo.it
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faglioni
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Passalacqua
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lazzeretti
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D000069497:Origin of Life; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D017510:Protein Folding
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; C019529:polyalanine; C011080:polyglycine