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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
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...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects
Graham Quince May 6, 2026
0 Comments
The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...
06/05/2026
Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...
06/05/2026
A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...
06/05/2026
Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...
06/05/2026
Peacock is going all-in on the beautiful game - streaming all 104 FIFA World Cup...
06/05/2026
New pricing tiers for vocal/dialogue restoration tool
NoiseWorks Audio's AI-powered vocal and dialogue processing plug-in is now available in three diff...
06/05/2026
Popular mixing & routing software overhauled
Following a recent public beta test, RME have launched the final release version of the powerful mixing and rou...
06/05/2026
New SOS Video Feature
Focusrites ISA C8X is a milestone product that brings together the companys analogue heritage and their expertise in digital audio. Yo...
06/05/2026
Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Riedel Communications today announced the expansion of its leadership structure as part of a strategic initiative to strengthen both its operational management ...
06/05/2026
For nearly three decades, Veteran Production Sound Mixer and Five-time Emmy Award Winner Dirk Sciarrotta has helped define the sonic identity of the long-runnin...
06/05/2026
ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing
Brie Clayton May 6, 2026
0 Comments
ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a nove...
06/05/2026
Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Med...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Narrative Entertainment has partnered with Encompass to deliver high-quality subtitling of its Great! network content using the Altitude Intelligence AI assiste...
06/05/2026
SipRadius, widely recognized for making content processing and connectivity secure and seamless, is proud to launch a dramatic new approach to AI content creati...
06/05/2026
When the broadband and media industry gathers at ANGA COM in Cologne from May 19 to 21, Big Blue Marble will be at the forefront. The international broadcast an...
06/05/2026
Cinegy GmbH, a leading developer of software-defined television technology, is proud to exhibit at MPTS for the first time. Visitors to the stand will discover ...
06/05/2026
Val Jeanty Receives 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award Jeanty, a composer, percussionist, and turntablist, is the fourth Berklee recipient of the prestigious award ...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
When live cycling races and international marathons stretch for miles across cities and countryside, there is no margin for RF failure in live broadcast. As Chi...
06/05/2026
Oberkochen/Germany, May 5, 2026
ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a novel solution for creating physically based cinematic lens looks for visual...
06/05/2026
06 May 2026
VEON's Kyivstar Authorized to Resell Starlink for Businesses & ...
06/05/2026
UKTV has secured the exclusive rights to the early back catalogue of iconic Australian drama series Neighbours, following a landmark content deal with Fremantle...
06/05/2026
Wednesday 6 May 2026
Sky commissions feature documentary to mark 10th anniversa...
06/05/2026
Wednesday 6 May 2026
Sky and Formula 1 agree long-term partnership across UK, Ireland and Italy
Sky in the UK & Ireland to remain the home of Formula 1 until ...
06/05/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign launches nationwide, supported by new...
06/05/2026
Wuppertal May 6, 2026
Riedel Expands Leadership Structure, Appoints Marc Engro...
06/05/2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. - May 6, 2026 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced its latest broadband innovations for ANGA COM 2026, highlighting its vision for a new e...
06/05/2026
Statement from Rupert Murdoch, Chairman Emeritus, Fox Corporation on Ted Turner&...
06/05/2026
Friday 8 May on RT One and RT Player
Meet the NSPCA team caring for and protecting animals in need in this six-part series
Fly on the wall, six-part series...
06/05/2026
The race to build the world's most powerful AI factories demands networking ...
06/05/2026
How changes to proteins can alter drug interactions for new precision therapies Scripps Research team maps how chemical modifications to proteins affect drug bi...
05/05/2026
Experts from the world of academia, tech, business, politics and media convened for a Thomson Talks at the Cambridge Disinformation Summit in April. It's th...
05/05/2026
Three phones were hardwired for power and transmission to the truck; camera feat...
05/05/2026
The creative studio behind campaigns for the NBA, Fanatics Sportsbook & Casino, ...
05/05/2026
Nielsen has announced results from a co-viewing pilot program covering February&...
How molecular handedness emerged in early biology Scripps Research chemists fill a major gap in origin-of-life theories.
