Enantiomer excesses of rare and common sugar derivatives in carbonaceous meteorites
Open accessAbstract
Significance: The majority of biological sugars and their derivatives contain higher abundances of the “ d ” mirror-image forms relative to the “ l ” forms. For example, nucleic acids are composed of only d sugars. Carbonaceous meteorites can potentially assist in understanding the long-sought origin of such phenomena; They preserve a record of the earliest (∼4.5 Gy) chemical processes in the Solar System. To date, there have been no systematic studies of d/l ( i.e., enantiomer) ratios of meteoritic sugar derivatives. In multiple meteorites, we demonstrate that rare and common sugar acids contain large excesses of the d enantiomer. Such data indicate that early meteoritic compounds may have influenced the enantiomer profile of subsequent biological sugars and their derivatives.
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C4 sugar alcohols, where threitol was the only chiral one, were present as racemic mixtures in the synthetic sample.
“However, C4 sugar alcohols, where threitol was the only chiral one, were present as racemic mixtures in the synthetic sample.”
From The Origin and Early Evolution of Life: Homochirality Emergence in Prebiotic Environments (2023) · cites this paper as Cooper and Rios, 2016
The passage on 4C sugar alcohols (page unavailable) says that only threitol is chiral and that it is apparently racemic in multiple meteorites. It does not establish that the sugar alcohols were racemic in a synthetic sample; the Fig. 3 caption (page unavailable) identifies a separate run of standards, not a synthetic sample with that result. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredLonger sugars were rarer and their D/L ratios were impossible to determine.
“Longer sugars were rarer though and their D/L ratios were impossible to determinate.(Cooper and Rios, 2016)”
From The Origin and Early Evolution of Life: Homochirality Emergence in Prebiotic Environments (2023) · cites this paper as Cooper and Rios, 2016
The Significance section says 6C sugar acids had low abundances and their D/L excesses could not be quantified because only D enantiomers were observed. But it reports measured D excesses for several 5C acids, so the claim is too broad if “longer sugars” includes those compounds. The paper studies sugar derivatives, rather than sugars generally. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredC4 threonic acid is present as a D-enantiomer, with a 33-55% enantiomeric excess (D-ees).
“C4 threonic acid is present as a D-enantiomer, with a 33-55% of enantiomeric excess (D-ees).”
From The Origin and Early Evolution of Life: Homochirality Emergence in Prebiotic Environments (2023) · cites this paper as Cooper and Rios, 2016
The authors found D-ee up to 82% for the C5 sugar acids.
“Despite their low abundances, the authors found D-ee up to 82% for the C5 sugar acids.”
From The Origin and Early Evolution of Life: Homochirality Emergence in Prebiotic Environments (2023) · cites this paper as Cooper and Rios, 2016
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Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
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- Authors
- Cooper, G., & Rios, A. C.
- Affiliations
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Exobiology Branch, Space Science and Astrobiology Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035;
- Corresponding author
- Cooper, George
- ORCID
- Cooper, George
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2016-05-31
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 24
- Pages
- E3322-31
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4914185
- OpenAlex
- W2417355339
- Cited by
- 123
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 5.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Arizona State University
- Universities Space Research Association
- Ames Research Center
- Johnson Space Center
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
- Keywords
- enantiomeric excess, carbonaceous chondrites, aldonic acids, sugar alcohols, prebiotic chemistry, origin of homochirality
- MeSH terms
- Carbohydrates, Stereoisomerism, Meteoroids
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