Homochirality in bio-organic systems and glyceraldehyde in the formose reaction.
The article explores the possibility that the ordering of bio-organic molecules into a homochiral assembly at the origin of life was performed not in aqueous solutions of amino acids or related materials but in racemic glyceraldehyde in the "formose" reaction at high concentration and temperature. Based on physical chemical evidence and computer simulations of condensed fluids, it is argued that the isomerization kinetics of glyceraldehyde is responszible of the symmetry break and the ordering of molecules into homochiral domains.
Department of Chemistry, H. C. Ørsted Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Toxvaerd
formose reaction; homochirality; origin of life