Pizzarello Sandra
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1604, USA.
Chem Biodivers. 2007 Apr;4(4):680-93. doi: 10.1002/cbdv.200790058.
Carbonaceous meteorites are rare fragments of asteroids that contain organic carbon of diverse composition, various complexity, and whose lineage can in several instances be traced back to pre-solar environments. Their analyses offer a unique glimpse into the chemistry of the solar system that preceded life and may have been available to its emergence on the early Earth. While the heterogeneity of the organic materials of meteorites is indicative of random synthetic processes for their formation, some of their components have identical counterparts in the biosphere, and a group of meteoritic amino acids were found to display chiral asymmetry, a property known since the time of Pasteur to be inextricably linked to life's processes. The ability of these amino acids to act as asymmetric catalysts, as well as indications that molecular asymmetry in meteorites may not be limited to these compounds, encourage the suggestion of possible involvement of meteoritic material in the induction of selective traits in molecular evolution.
碳质陨石是小行星的稀有碎片，其中含有成分多样、复杂度各异的有机碳，在某些情况下，其来源可追溯到太阳系形成之前的环境。对它们的分析为了解生命出现之前的太阳系化学提供了独特视角，这些化学物质可能在早期地球上促成了生命的出现。虽然陨石中有机物质的异质性表明其形成过程是随机合成的，但其中一些成分在生物圈中有相同的对应物，并且发现一组陨石氨基酸表现出手性不对称，自巴斯德时代起就知道这种特性与生命过程有着千丝万缕的联系。这些氨基酸作为不对称催化剂的能力，以及陨石中分子不对称可能不限于这些化合物的迹象，促使人们推测陨石物质可能参与了分子进化中选择性状的诱导过程。
