Recycling Frank: Spontaneous emergence of homochirality in noncatalytic systems - Archive ouverte HAL
Article Dans Une Revue Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Année : 2004

Recycling Frank: Spontaneous emergence of homochirality in noncatalytic systems

Résumé

In this work, we introduce a prebiotically relevant protometabolic pattern corresponding to an engine of deracemization by using an external energy source. The spontaneous formation of a nonracemic mixture of chiral compounds can be observed in out-of-equilibrium systems via a symmetry-breaking phenomenon. This observation is possible thanks to chirally selective autocatalytic reactions (Frank's model) [Frank, F. C. (1953) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 11, 459–463]. We show that the use of a Frank-like model in a recycled system composed of reversible chemical reactions, rather than the classical irreversible system, allows for the emergence of a synergetic autoinduction from simple reactions, without any autocatalytic or even catalytic reaction. This model is described as a theoretical framework, based on the stereoselective reactivity of preexisting chiral monomeric building blocks (polymerization, epimerization, and depolymerization) maintained out of equilibrium by a continuous energy income, via an activation reaction. It permits the self-conversion of all monomeric subunits into a single chiral configuration. Real prebiotic systems of amino acid derivatives can be described on this basis. They are shown to be able to spontaneously reach a stable nonracemic state in a few centuries. In such systems, the presence of epimerization reactions is no more destructive, but in contrast is the central driving force of the unstabilization of the racemic state.

Domaines

Chimie

Dates et versions

hal-04695547 , version 1 (12-09-2024)

Identifiants

Citer

Raphaël Plasson, Hugues Bersini, Auguste Commeyras. Recycling Frank: Spontaneous emergence of homochirality in noncatalytic systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2004, 101 (48), pp.16733-16738. ⟨10.1073/pnas.0405293101⟩. ⟨hal-04695547⟩
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