Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2010 May;2(5):a002147. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a002147. Epub 2010 Mar 31.
The single-handedness of biological molecules has fascinated scientists and laymen alike since Pasteur's first painstaking separation of the enantiomorphic crystals of a tartrate salt more than 150 yr ago. More recently, a number of theoretical and experimental investigations have helped to delineate models for how one enantiomer might have come to dominate over the other from what presumably was a racemic prebiotic world. This article highlights mechanisms for enantioenrichment that include either chemical or physical processes, or a combination of both. The scientific driving force for this work arises from an interest in understanding the origin of life, because the homochirality of biological molecules is a signature of life.
自 150 多年前巴斯德首次费力地分离出酒石酸盐的对映体晶体以来，生物分子的手性一直令科学家和外行人着迷。最近，一些理论和实验研究帮助描绘出了模型，说明了在假定的外消旋前生物世界中，一种对映异构体如何占据主导地位。本文重点介绍了包括化学或物理过程或两者结合在内的对映体富集机制。这项工作的科学驱动力源于对生命起源的兴趣，因为生物分子的手性是生命的特征。
