How molecular handedness emerged in early biology Scripps Research chemists fill a major gap in origin-of-life theories.
February 28, 2024
LA JOLLA, CA Molecules often have a structural asymmetry called chirality, which means they can appear in alternative, mirror-image versions, akin to the left and right versions of human hands. One of the great mysteries about the origins of life on Earth is that virtually all of the fundamental molecules of biology, such as the building blocks of proteins and DNA, appear in just one chiral form.
Scripps Research chemists, in two high-profile studies, have now proposed an elegant solution to this mystery, showing how this single-handedness or homochirality could have become established in biology.
The studies were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on February 5, 2024, and in Nature on February 28, 2024. Together, they suggest that the emergence of homochirality was due largely to a chemistry phenomenon called kinetic resolution, in which one chiral form becomes more abundant than another due to faster production and/or slower depletion.
There have been many proposals for how homochirality emerged in specific molecules specific amino acids, for example but we really have needed a more general theory, says Donna Blackmond, PhD, professor and John C. Martin Chair in the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research, who led both studies.
Graduate student Jinhan Yu and postdoctoral research associate Min Deng, PhD, were the first authors of the two studies.
The conundrum of homochirality
Origin of life chemistry has been a busy field for much of the past century. Its practitioners have discovered dozens of key reactions that plausibly occurred on the early, prebiotic Earth to produce the first DNAs, RNAs, sugars, amino acids and other molecules that sustain life. Missing from this body of work, however, has been a plausible prebiotic theory for the emergence of homochirality.
There has been a tendency in the field to ignore the chirality issue when looking for plausible reactions that could have made the first biological molecules, Blackmond says. It's frustrating, because without reactions that favor homochirality, we wouldnt have life.
Ordinary chemical reactions that produce chiral molecules tend to yield equal ( racemic ) mixes of left- and right-handed forms. Outside of biology, this mixing typically doesn't matter, as both forms usually have similar or identical properties. Within biology, though, as a consequence of extensive homochirality, it is commonly the case that only the left- or the right-handed form of a chiral molecule has useful properties the other may be inert or even toxic. Thus, cells often guide reactions to yield specific chiral forms, using highly evolved enzymes.
The prebiotic Earth would not have had such enzymes, though so how did homochirality ever arise?
A paradoxical result
In their study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Blackmond and her team addressed this problem for amino acids. These small organic molecules are used as building blocks for proteins by all living things on Earth, but exist in biology in just the left-handed chiral form.
The researchers specifically sought to reproduce homochirality in a central process in amino acid production called transamination, by using a relatively simple, plausibly prebiotic chemistry that excludes complex enzymes.
In early tests, the team's experimental reaction worked, and yielded amino acids that were enriched for one chiral form versus the other. The problem was that the favored form was the right-handed form the one that biology doesn't use.
We were stuck for a while, but then the light bulb went on we realized we could do part of the reaction in reverse, Blackmond says.
When they did that, the reaction no longer preferentially made right-handed amino acids. In a striking example of kinetic resolution, it instead preferentially consumed and depleted the right-handed versions leaving more of the desired left-handed amino acids. It thus served as a plausible route to homochirality for amino acids used in living cells.
Tying it all together
For the Nature study, the chemists explored a simple reaction with which amino acids in the earliest life forms might have been linked together into the first short proteins (also known as peptides). The reaction had been published earlier by another researcher, but had never been investigated for its ability to produce homochiral peptides from racemic or near-racemic mixes of amino acids.
Once again, the chemists ran into what seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle: They discovered that in forming peptide chains of amino acids, the reaction worked faster for linkages of left-handed with right-handed amino acids the opposite of the desired homochiral peptides.
Still, the team persevered. Ultimately, they discovered that when one type of amino acid in the starting pool of amino acids had even a moderate dominance of the left-handed form as their other study made plausible the faster reaction rate for left-handed-to-right-handed linkages preferentially depleted right-handed amino acids, leaving an ever-greater concentration of left-handed ones. Additionally, the left-right-left-right peptides had a stronger tendency to clump together and fall out of solution as solids. These kinetic resolution-related phenomena thus ended up yielding a surprisingly pure solution of almost fully left-handed peptides.
To Blackmond, the seemingly paradoxical mechanisms uncovered in these studies offer the first convincing and broad explanation for the emergence of homochirality an explanation that probably works not only for amino acids, she says, but also for other fundamental molecules of biology such as DNA and RNA.
Prebiotic access to enantioenriched amino aci
North America Stories
28/01/2026
Airlines, cruise and tour operators double down on ad spend as Australians' prioritise travel
Sydney January 28, 2026 - New Nielsen Ad Intel data shows a...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Marshall Electronics launches the CV420-27X, its next-generation ultra-high-definition (UHD) IP camera, at ISE 2026 (Stand 4N900). Engineered for modern IP-base...
28/01/2026
Grass Valley has announced that Television Mobiles Ltd. (TVM), one of Europe's leading independent outside broadcast providers, has carried out a major refu...
28/01/2026
AI, graphics and virtual software power new production capabilities
FOR-A is bringing remarkable new technologies to FOMEX, the Future of Media Exhibition (ex...
28/01/2026
Continuing a longstanding collaboration, Riedel Communications and Nordic media technology company Media Tailor have once again joined forces to deliver a state...
28/01/2026
Pebble has appointed Paul Nagle-Smith as vice president for customer fulfilment, strengthening its senior leadership focus on customer delivery and operational ...
28/01/2026
Cloud playout solutions provider, Veset has announced that leading Mexican broadcaster, TV Azteca is using Veset Nimbus on AWS as a disaster recovery (DR) playo...
28/01/2026
Ensuring it can keep pace with a rapidly evolving live sports market, Balkan broadcast facility provider MVP Most Valuable Production has upgraded its flags...
28/01/2026
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud solutions provider that powers and protects life online, and Yospace, the leader in dynamic ad insertion tec...
28/01/2026
The renowned Reykjavik City Theatre (RCT) recently underwent a major intercom system upgrade using Clear-Com solutions. This milestone project utilizes Clear-C...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Boston Conservatory Orchestra Premieres a New Piano Concerto by Peter and Leonar...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
The Wait Is Over: Teaser Trailer Drops for Jo Nesbo's Dete...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces a Fictional Miniseries Inspired by the Marta del Castillo Case
Entertainment
28 January 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to ...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces Santiago Mitres New Film Starring Ver nica L...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Teaser Trailer for Berlin and the Lady wit...
27/01/2026
L-R: Jonathan Cuchacovich, Sonia Kennebeck, Alan Fischer, Daeil Kim, Andrew Sta...
27/01/2026
Nielsen will continue to drive growth and provide local audience measurement
in...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Amagi Media Labs Limited, the only cloud-native SaaS provider offering end-to-end solutions across live production, content preparation, distribution, and monet...
27/01/2026
Miri Technologies Inc. today unveiled its V410 live 4K video encoder/decoder for streaming, IP-based production workflows and AV-over-IP distribution. Designed ...
27/01/2026
The Paul E. Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell in Massachusetts has chosen Ikegami cameras for incorporation into its broadcast-quality television production facili...
27/01/2026
SipRadius, specialists in secure, low latency media transport, will show the pro AV community its end-to-end solution for high quality content distribution and ...
27/01/2026
Hiltron will highlight the fruits of its 45-plus years of experience in satellite communications system integration and product development at the annual GovSat...
27/01/2026
Klvr will demonstrate how its Charger Pro solution is delivering cost reduction and performance benefits for live entertainment and pro AV markets at ISE 2026 (...
27/01/2026
Amino, a global media technology leader in enterprise video and digital signage, today announced that its Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2026 booth (4N700) wil...
27/01/2026
ANI, India's leading news agency and a major content provider across the Asia Pacific region, today announced a significant expansion of its long standing p...
27/01/2026
Independent analysis confirms faster encoding, lower CPU usage, and improved perceptual quality compared to CBR and CRF
VisualOn, a leader in multimedia playba...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Back to All News
That Night Premiering on Netflix March 13
Entertainment
27 January 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
DOWNLOAD THE KEY ART
DOWNLO...
27/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Kicks Off 15-Year Anniversary Celebrations in Brazil W...
27/01/2026
Back to All News
When It Feels Real, Is It Still a Lie? The Art of Sarah' ...
27/01/2026
Back to All News
That Night premiering on Netflix March 13
Entertainment
27 January 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
DOWNLOAD THE KEY ART
DOWNLO...
27/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Revealed the Future of Mexican Stories Coming in 2026
Entertainment
27 January 2026
GlobalMexico
Link copied to clipboard
Among t...
27/01/2026
Back to All News
Four New Japan Titles Announced for 2026: Viral Hit', On...
27/01/2026
Back to All News
What's Next on Netflix from Japan: Expanding the Possibili...
27/01/2026
AI, graphics and virtual software power new production capabilities...
26/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
26/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
26/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
How molecular handedness emerged in early biology Scripps Research chemists fill a major gap in origin-of-life theories.
