Biological systems exhibit marked molecular asymmetry, with proteins based predominantly on L-amino acids and nucleic acids and carbohydrates largely composed of D-sugars.
stereoselectivity
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Triplet-Encoded Prebiotic RNA Aminoacylation
The encoding step of translation involves attachment of amino acids to cognate tRNAs by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, themselves the product of coded peptide synthesis. So, the question arises─before these enzymes evolved, […]
![(A) The proposed active complex proposed by Rode et al. (1990) for the SIPF reaction for a protonated and neutral alanine molecule [18]. (B) Another plausible SIPF active complex between two neutral alanine molecules in a cis configuration as proposed by Rimola et al. (2007) [20]. Here, cis refers to the relative position of the N (or equivalently O) atoms on the same side of the plane containing the Cu atom. In this figure, red denotes oxygen, blue denotes nitrogen, gray denotes carbon, light gray denotes hydrogen, orange denotes copper, and green denotes chlorine. -- Life](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TheRoleOf.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
The Role of the CuCl Active Complex in the Stereoselectivity of the Salt-Induced Peptide Formation Reaction: Insights from Density Functional Theory Calculations
The salt-induced peptide formation (SIPF) reaction is a prebiotically plausible mechanism for the spontaneous polymerization of amino acids into peptides on early Earth.