Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences (Feb 2022)

Selection of Amino Acid Chirality Induced by Cyclic Dipeptide Synthesis in Plausible Prebiotic Conditions

  • Yeting Guo,
  • Yumeng Zhang,
  • Jianxi Ying,
  • Yan Liu,
  • Gaiyun Zhang,
  • Yufen Zhao,
  • Yufen Zhao,
  • Yufen Zhao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2022.794932
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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The biological system uses L-amino acids (L-AAs) to construct peptides. The selection of AA chirality in the prebiotic Earth still remains a mystery. Here we report the intrinsic mechanism of AA chiral selection in the formation of prebiotic proline-containing cyclic dipeptide (DKPs). The DKPs were synthesized by equal amounts of L-AA and D-AA with L-Pro that exhibited a clear preference for D-AA as opposed to L-AA. And surprisingly, the L-AA was preferred over D-AA in the mirror-image system with D-Pro. These results indicate that prebiotic DKPs synthesis has a certain selectivity for AA chirality preceded the biological enzymatic catalysis.

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