Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

February 28, 2024

29/02/2024

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
LINK: https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press-room/2024/20240228-black...
See more stories from scripps

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

03/02/2026

Tagboard's New Partner Development Kit Turns Complex Third-Party Integrations into Instant Graphics

Tagboard, a modern, interactive graphics system for news, sports, and entertainm...

03/02/2026

SNS Launches New S3-Compatible Cloud Storage Service

Studio Network Solutions (SNS) announces the launch of Trio, a new S3-compatible cloud storage service fully integrated with EVO for media backup, archival, and...

03/02/2026

NEP Group Running at Full-Scale This Month in Support of Major International Events

50 Production Trucks at center of 160 U.S.-based productions...

03/02/2026

Nielsen Launches Co-Viewing Pilot Program to Further Enhance TV Measurement

Nielsen, which specializes in audience measurement, data, and media intelligence, announces that it is piloting a new methodology enhancement to more accurately...

03/02/2026

NBC Sports Relies on Appear X Platform for Winter Games

Appear's X Platform will be used by NBC Sports to deliver video compression, satellite modulation and transport stream aggregation for its production of the...

03/02/2026

Behind The Mic: NBC Sports Unveils Presentation Cast for Super Bowl LX as Part of Legendary February

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

03/02/2026

NHL Network to Take Fans Rinkside as NHL Players Return to Winter Olympic Games

NHL Network announces its comprehensive programming schedule for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, underscoring the highly anticipated return of NHL players to...

03/02/2026

Canon Lenses Power NBC Coverage of Milano Cortina Winter Games

NBC Sports has chosen Canon to deliver 115 Canon UHD broadcast lenses for its production of the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Canon will also send suppo...

03/02/2026

NBC Sports Selects Audio-Technica for Vital Winter Games Role

Audio-Technica equipment will be used by NBC Sports to deliver much of its audio capture requirements across all sporting venues for its production of the 2026 ...

03/02/2026

Cisco VXLAN Makes Olympic Debut for NBC Sports

NBC Sports will use Cisco to deliver AI networking technology for its all-IP production of the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, including the deployment of...

03/02/2026

Chyron PRIME CG Drives NBC Sports Winter Games Graphics

NBC Sports will utilize Chyron PRIME CG to produce live broadcast graphics to display names, athlete information, scores, statistics, leaderboards, headshots an...

03/02/2026

NBC Sports Relies on Grass Valley for Winter Games Signal Conversion, Routing, Orchestration

NBC Sports will utilize Grass Valley to deliver advanced signal conversion, rout...

03/02/2026

Planar Supplies LED Wall Technology for NBC Sports Winter Games Coverage

NBC Sports will utilize Planar to deliver leading-edge fine pixel pitch LED video wall technology for its production of the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics...

03/02/2026

FOX Sports Wraps Run Airing Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

Taking place in two venues, the 2026 production celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the Super Bowl of Dogs' When the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show conc...

03/02/2026

ESPN To Broadcast 2026 NFL Pro Bowl Games Live From San Francisco's Convention Center

For the indoor production, NEP Specialty Capture has mounted a 100-ft. overhead ...

03/02/2026

Inside League One Volleyball: Mobile TV Group Drives Broadcasts via Onsite Support, Remotely From Mountain Media Center

MTVG Edge, the production-services supplier's software-based production solu...

03/02/2026

Inside League One Volleyball: CMO Raquel Braun on Partnering With Omaha Productions, Mobile TV Group

In the league's second year, new partnerships enhance broadcast quality for ...

03/02/2026

NBC Sports Taps Ross Video's Rocket Surgery for Virtual and AR at 2026 Winter Games

Rocket Surgery will showcase the combined creative strength of Ross Video, with ...

03/02/2026

Sony Supplies 100+ Cameras, 500 Monitors, and More for NBC's Winter Olympics Coverage

NBC Sports will utilize Sony Electronics to deliver imaging, monitoring, and tec...

03/02/2026

NBC Sports Selects SMT to Handle Results, Timing, and Production Data Services for Milano-Cortina 2026

SMT will provide TVI (broadcast television interface) support services for figur...

03/02/2026

Spotify Celebrates the 2026 Best New Artist Nominees During a Star-Studded Party in LA

Spotify's annual Best New Artist celebration returned to Los Angeles last ni...

03/02/2026

The smash-hit series The Hospital: In the Deep End returns to shine a spotlight on the real-life heroes of our healthcare system

The smash-hit series The Hospital: In the Deep End returns to shine a spotlight ...

03/02/2026

Introducing: FoMa Antares

FoMa Antares: Redefining Camera Stabilization for Modern ProductionsIn high-end broadcast and cinematic environments, precision, reliability, and flexibility ar...

03/02/2026

Viper Shield Flight Tests Accelerates Delivery with New Digital Electronic Warfare Capability

Viper Shield's robust phase of flight-testing production representative hard...

03/02/2026

L3Harris: A Strategic Partner for National Vigilance and Regional Peace

Countries throughout the Indo-Pacific have made the ability to defend their people and sovereign borders a top priority, but no single nation can monitor every ...

03/02/2026

L3Harris Achieves Record-Breaking Fuzing Delivery Milestone

U.S. Marine loads a round in an 81 mm mortar system during an exercise. (Credit: U.S. Marines)...

03/02/2026

Cobalt Targets Need for Multiple Video Feeds with openGear 9905MPx Multi-Channel Processor

9905MPx Card features unprecedented level of density with four independent signa...

03/02/2026

Cobalt Wins Three 2021 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards

Champaign, IL - November 15, 2021 - Cobalt Digital, announced today that three of its products have received 2021 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards. Cobalt, ...

03/02/2026

LOG4J Does Not Affect Cobalt Digital Products

Cobalt is pleased to confirm that Log4j vulnerability does NOT affect ANY Cobalt products including the HPF-9000 frame. Given the recent concerns regarding wi...

03/02/2026

Cobalt Digital's Launch of +UDX-Dante-1616 Introduces First License-based 12G-SDI Bridge to Dante Audio

Software-based embedding and de-embedding solution will be highlighted at NAB 20...

03/02/2026

Cobalt to Show New Line-up of EO/OE 12G Mini-Convertor BBG Boxes at NAB

Series developed to fill an industry need. Champaign, IL April 13, 2022 Cobalt Digital will introduce a new series of BlueBox Group (BBG) EO/OE 12G mini...

03/02/2026

Cobalt Takes Home Four Awards from NAB 2022

Company receives Best in Shows from Next TV and TVB Europe, and two Product of the Year awards from NAB Champaign, IL - May 6, 2022 - Cobalt Digital Inc. head...

03/02/2026

Cobalt to Participate in Several Events in and Around IBC 2022

IBC Stand 10.B44Journalists: Click to visit Cobalt Dr. Ciro Noronha, CTO, tapped as a panelist and speaker by many - and then there's the party! Amsterda...

03/02/2026

Company Announces Changes in Sales and Engineering Team Just in Time for IBC

IBC Stand 10.B44Journalists: Click to visit Cobalt Growth Drives Cobalt Digital to Promote Dr. Ciro Noronha to CTO, and Appoint Anthony Tan as Director of Sale...

03/02/2026

Cobalt Targets Top Trends at NAB NY with Solutions that Support IP, 4K ST 2110, HDR, RIST, Dante and Internet Security.

IBC Stand 10.B44Journalists: Click to visit Cobalt Dr. Ciro Noronha, CTO, tappe...

03/02/2026

Cobalt is Bringing an Award-Winning Portfolio of New Products to CABSAT 2023

Manufacturer plans also include solutions that provide a path to the cloud and redundancy updatesCABSAT Stand S1-I42Journalists: Click to visit Cobalt Dubai - ...

03/02/2026

Cobalt Announces Presence at ANGA COM 2023

Award-Winning Product Portfolio is Being Presented on Smart Video Group Stand, and Company's Berend Blokzijl is Scheduled to Share RIST Insight on Innovatio...

03/02/2026

COBALT Announces an IBC Line-up that Features IP Products and Extends 12-G Support Options

NEW Location IBC Stand 10.F42 Same Hall, NEW StandJournalists: Click to visi...

03/02/2026

TVBEurope: Understanding the RIST series of Specifications

TVBEurope spoke with our very own Dr. Ciro Noronha about RIST and more.Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) is growing in popularity for contribution and d...

03/02/2026

IBC 2023: COBALT has 12G Covered with Multiple openGEAR Cards and New Form Factor Solutions

NEW Location IBC Stand 10.F42 Same Hall, NEW StandJournalists: Click to visi...

03/02/2026

Catch the COBALT WAVE of New Routers and Control Panels at IBC

NEW Location IBC Stand 10.F42 Same Hall, NEW StandJournalists: Click to visit CobaltCatch Cobalt's Blue WAVE of Innovation in a New LocationHighlights t...

03/02/2026

COBALT Scores Best of Show Awards at IBC 2023

Cobalt Digital Scores Best of Show Awards at IBC 2023 from TVB Europe and TV Technology Amsterdam, 2 October 2023 - Cobalt Digital has announced that it has w...

03/02/2026

COBALT DIGITAL at NAB New York 2023 Booth 1126

NAB NY Booth: 1126Cobalt Digital to Present New PACIFIC Ultra-Low Latency 4K HEVC Encoder / Decoder Platform at NAB NY 2023Cobalt's NAB NY Plans Have Live P...

03/02/2026

COBALT Announces Inter BEE Product Line-Up

Cobalt's Inter BEE Line-up Targets 4K 2110 Processing with INDIGO Option and Offers High-Density Routing Solutions with New WAVE SeriesNew Mini Converters a...

03/02/2026

NAB 2024 Preview - Booth SU4027

Cobalt Digital's NAB 2024 Plans Include a Simplified Path to ATSC 3.0 Other Highlights include Enhanced IP Multiviewers, Expanded Router and Control Panel ...