MacDermott A J
School of Biological and Molecular Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England.
Orig Life Evol Biosph. 1995 Jun;25(1-3):191-9. doi: 10.1007/BF01581582.
All biomolecules are of one hand--but what determines which hand? Why is life based on L-amino acids and D-sugars rather than D-amino acids and L-sugars? We believe the symmetry-breaker could be the weak force, which causes enantiomers to differ very slightly in energy. In this paper we present our calculations of this parity-violating energy difference (PVED) for a range of important biomolecules, and in nearly all cases it is indeed the 'natural' enantiomer which is the more stable.
所有生物分子都具有手性——但究竟是什么决定了是哪种手性呢?为什么生命基于L-氨基酸和D-糖,而不是D-氨基酸和L-糖呢?我们认为,打破对称性的可能是弱力,它使得对映体在能量上存在非常微小的差异。在本文中,我们展示了对一系列重要生物分子这种宇称破缺能量差(PVED)的计算,而且几乎在所有情况下,更稳定的确实是“天然”对映体。