CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 119Origins and Evolution of LifeSpace Science and Extraterrestrial LifePaleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils

On the origins of life’s homochirality: Inducing enantiomeric excess with spin-polarized electrons

Open access
Ozturk, S. Furkan, Sasselov, Dimitar D.·2022·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.2204765119PMC PMC9282223
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Life as we know it is homochiral, but the origins of biological homochirality on early Earth remain elusive. Shallow closed-basin lakes are a plausible prebiotic environment on early Earth, and most are expected to have significant sedimentary magnetite deposits. We hypothesize that ultraviolet (200- to 300-nm) irradiation of magnetite deposits could generate hydrated spin-polarized electrons sufficient to induce enantioselective prebiotic chemistry. Such electrons are potent reducing agents that drive reduction reactions where the spin polarization direction can enantioselectively alter the reaction kinetics. Our estimate of this chiral bias is based on the strong effective spin-orbit coupling observed in the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect, as applied to energy differences in reduction reactions for different isomers. In the original CISS experiments, spin-selective electron transmission through a monolayer of double-strand DNA molecules is observed at room temperature-indicating a strong coupling between molecular chirality and electron spin. We propose that the chiral symmetry breaking due to the CISS effect, when applied to reduction chemistry, can induce enantioselective synthesis on the prebiotic Earth and thus facilitate the homochiral assembly of life's building blocks.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.2204765119

Cites

9 of 9 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Spontaneous homochiral symmetry breaking happened in a heterogeneous rather than a homogeneous environment such as space interstellar clouds, deep sea smokers or hydrothermal pools, where organic and inorganic compounds could have interacted due to external forces like radiation, heat or both.

    “To our understanding, spontaneous homochiral symmetry breaking happened in a heterogeneous rather than a homogeneous environment such as space interstellar clouds, deep sea smokers or hydrothermal pools, where organic (carbon-based compounds) and inorganic (essentially minerals) compounds could have interacted due to external forces like radiation, heat or both.”

    From The Origin and Early Evolution of Life: Homochirality Emergence in Prebiotic Environments (2023) · cites this paper as Ozturk and Sasselov, 2022

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 37

  1. [2]D. Avnir, Critical review of chirality indicators of extraterrestrial life. New Astron. Rev. 92, 101596 (2021).
  2. [5]T. Shibata, S. Yonekubo, K. Soai, Practically perfect asymmetric autocatalysis with (2-alkynyl-5-pyrimidyl)alkanols. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 38, 659– 661 (1999). 29711547
  3. [7]M. W. Powner, B. Gerland, J. D. Sutherland, Synthesis of activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides in prebiotically plausible conditions. Nature 459, 239– 242 (2009). 19444213
  4. [8]L. Legnani, A. Darù, A. X. Jones, D. G. Blackmond, Mechanistic insight into the origin of stereoselectivity in the ribose-mediated strecker synthesis of alanine. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 7852– 7858 (2021). 33979125
  5. [9]D. G. Blackmond, Autocatalytic models for the origin of biological homochirality. Chem. Rev. 120, 4831– 4847 (2020). 31797671
  6. [11]W. L. Noorduin., Complete chiral symmetry breaking of an amino acid derivative directed by circularly polarized light. Nat. Chem. 1, 729– 732 (2009). 21124360
  7. [12]G. L. Rikken, E. Raupach, Enantioselective magnetochiral photochemistry. Nature 405, 932– 935 (2000). 10879530
  8. [13]N. Globus, R. D. Blandford, The chiral puzzle of life. Astrophys. J. 895, L11 (2020).
  9. [14]A. Szabó-Nagy, L. Keszthelyi, Demonstration of the parity-violating energy difference between enantiomers. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 96, 4252– 4255 (1999). 10200248 PMC16318
  10. [15]S. F. Mason, Universal dissymmetry and the origin of biomolecular chirality. Biosystems 20, 27– 35 (1987). 3580531
  11. [17]J. M. Dreiling, T. J. Gay, Chirally sensitive electron-induced molecular breakup and the Vester-Ulbricht hypothesis. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 118103 (2014). 25260009
  12. [18]R. A. Rosenberg, M. Abu Haija, P. J. Ryan, Chiral-selective chemistry induced by spin-polarized secondary electrons from a magnetic substrate. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 178301 (2008). 18999792
  13. [21]B. Göhler., Spin selectivity in electron transmission through self-assembled monolayers of double-stranded DNA. Science 331, 894– 897 (2011). 21330541
  14. [23]R. Naaman, D. H. Waldeck, Chiral-induced spin selectivity effect. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 3, 2178– 2187 (2012). 26295768
  15. [24]J. Fransson, Chirality-induced spin selectivity: The role of electron correlations. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 10, 7126– 7132 (2019). 31657931
  16. [25]S. Varela., Intrinsic Rashba coupling due to hydrogen bonding in DNA. J. Chem. Phys. 151, 125102 (2019). 31575191
  17. [26]F. Evers., Theory of chirality induced spin selectivity: Progress and challenges. Adv. Mater. 34, e2106629 (2022). 35064943
  18. [27]B. P. Bloom., Asymmetric reactions induced by electron spin polarization. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 21570– 21582 (2020). 32697241
  19. [28]T. S. Metzger., The electron spin as a chiral reagent. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 59, 1653– 1658 (2020). 31621990
  20. [29]T. S. Metzger., Dynamic spin-controlled enantioselective catalytic chiral reactions. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 12, 5469– 5472 (2021). 34085834
  21. [32]B. H. Patel, C. Percivalle, D. J. Ritson, C. D. Duffy, J. D. Sutherland, Common origins of RNA, protein and lipid precursors in a cyanosulfidic protometabolism. Nat. Chem. 7, 301– 307 (2015). 25803468 PMC4568310
  22. [33]D. D. Sasselov, J. P. Grotzinger, J. D. Sutherland, The origin of life as a planetary phenomenon. Sci. Adv. 6, eaax3419 (2020). 32076638 PMC7002131
  23. [37]N. J. Tosca, I. A. M. Ahmed, B. M. Tutolo, A. Ashpitel, J. A. Hurowitz, Magnetite authigenesis and the warming of early mars. Nat. Geosci. 11, 635– 639 (2018). 30123317 PMC6092749
  24. [38]J. A. Hurowitz., Redox stratification of an ancient lake in Gale crater, Mars. Science 356, eaah6849 (2017). 28572336
  25. [40]W. Eib, F. Meier, D. Pierce, K. Sattler, H. Siegmann, “Spin polarized photoemission from Fe3O4” in AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, 1975), vol. 24, pp. 88–89.
  26. [41]S. Alvarado, M. Erbudak, P. Munz, Final-state effects in the 3 d photoelectron spectrum of Fe3O4 and comparison with Fe xO. Phys. Rev. B 14, 2740 (1976).
  27. [42]S. Ranjan, D. D. Sasselov, Constraints on the early terrestrial surface uv environment relevant to prebiotic chemistry. Astrobiology 17, 169– 204 (2017). 28323482
  28. [43]D. J. Dunlop, J. Arkani-Hamed, Magnetic minerals in the Martian crust. J. Geophys. Res. Planets 110, E12504 (2005).
  29. [44]C. R. Timmel, K. B. Henbest, A study of spin chemistry in weak magnetic fields. Philos. Trans. A Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 362, 2573– 2589 (2004). 15539359
  30. [45]P. Hore, K. L. Ivanov, M. R. Wasielewski, Spin chemistry. J. Chem. Phys. 152, 120401 (2020). 32241144
  31. [47]J. Xu., Photochemical reductive homologation of hydrogen cyanide using sulfite and ferrocyanide. Chem. Commun. (Camb.) 54, 5566– 5569 (2018). 29761807 PMC5972737
  32. [48]F. Lapointe, M. Wolf, R. K. Campen, Y. Tong, Probing the birth and ultrafast dynamics of hydrated electrons at the gold/liquid water interface via an optoelectronic approach. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 142, 18619– 18627 (2020). 32954719 PMC7596759
  33. [50]G. A. Crispino, P. T. Ho, K. B. Sharpless, Selective perhydroxylation of squalene: Taming the arithmetic demon. Science 259, 64– 66 (1993). 8418495
  34. [51]P. B. Rimmer., The origin of RNA precursors on exoplanets. Sci. Adv. 4, eaar3302 (2018). PMC6070314 30083602
  35. [53]C. Kulkarni., Highly efficient and tunable filtering of electrons’ spin by supramolecular chirality of nanofiber-based materials. Adv. Mater. 32, e1904965 (2020). 31922628
  36. [54]S. Mishra., Spin filtering along chiral polymers. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 59, 14671– 14676 (2020). 32533565 PMC7496609
  37. [55]D. Waldeck, R. Naaman, Y. Paltiel, The spin selectivity effect in chiral materials. APL Mater. 9, 040902 (2021).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Ozturk, S. F., & Sasselov, D. D.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Ozturk, S. Furkan
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2022-07-05
Volume
119
Issue
28
Pages
e2204765119-e2204765119
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2204765119
PMC
PMC9282223
OpenAlex
W4221157426
Cited by
119
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 25 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 5
FWCI
9.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
Funders
Simons Foundation (290360)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
Keywords
homochirality, origin of life, enantiomeric excess, polarized electrons, magnetite, UV irradiation, chirality-induced spin selectivity, spin-orbit coupling, asymmetric reduction, prebiotic chemistry, early Earth, chiral symmetry breaking
MeSH terms
DNA, Electrons, Stereoisomerism, Earth, Planet, Ferrosoferric Oxide

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review