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Cited by 75Origins and Evolution of LifeRNA and protein synthesis mechanismsEvolution and Genetic Dynamics

The origin of biological homochirality along with the origin of life

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Chen, Yong, Ma, Wentao·2020·PLOS Computational Biology
DOI 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007592PMC PMC6974302
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Abstract

How homochirality concerning biopolymers (DNA/RNA/proteins) could have originally occurred (i.e., arisen from a non-life chemical world, which tended to be chirality-symmetric) is a long-standing scientific puzzle. For many years, people have focused on exploring plausible physic-chemical mechanisms that may have led to prebiotic environments biased to one chiral type of monomers (e.g., D-nucleotides against L-nucleotides; L-amino-acids against D-amino-acids)-which should have then assembled into corresponding polymers with homochirality, but as yet have achieved no convincing advance. Here we show, by computer simulation-with a model based on the RNA world scenario, that the biased-chirality may have been established at polymer level instead, just deriving from a racemic mixture of monomers (i.e., equally with the two chiral types). In other words, the results suggest that the homochirality may have originated along with the advent of biopolymers during the origin of life, rather than somehow at the level of monomers before the origin of life.

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  • The emergence of RNA polymers with RNA replicase or nucleotide synthase properties during the course of the simulation led to amplification of the initial chiral bias.

    “The emergence of RNA polymers with RNA replicase or nucleotide synthase properties during the course of the simulation led to amplification of the initial chiral bias.”

    From Possible chemical and physical scenarios towards biological homochirality (2022) · cites this paper as [576]

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Authors
Chen, Y., & Ma, W.
Affiliations
Wuhan University (CN)
Corresponding author
Ma, Wentao
ORCID
Ma, Wentao
Venue
PLOS Computational Biology
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2020-01-08
Volume
16
Issue
1
Pages
e1007592
ISSN
  • 1553-734X (ISSN-L)
  • 1553-7358
DOI
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007592
PMC
PMC6974302
OpenAlex
W3000712939
Cited by
75
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 2
FWCI
4.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
new_version (2020-01-21)
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS Computational Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31571367)
  • Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2019CFB685)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
Keywords
homochirality, origin of life, prebiotic chemistry, RNA world, biopolymers, nucleotide polymerization, amino acid chirality, computer simulation
MeSH terms
Origin of Life, Amino Acids, Biopolymers, Isomerism, Models, Biological, Nucleotides, Evolution, Chemical

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