Asymmetric autocatalysis and its implications for the origin of homochirality
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Edited by Jack Halpern, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and approved February 20, 2004 (received for review December 18, 2003)
Abstract
An autocatalytic reaction in which the reaction product serves as a catalyst to produce more of itself and to suppress production of its enantiomer serves as a mechanistic model for the evolution of homochirality. The Soai reaction provided experimental confirmation of this concept, nearly 50 years after it was first proposed. This Perspective offers a rationalization of the Soai autocatalytic reaction; accounting for enantiomeric excess and rate observations, that is both simple as well as gratifying in its implications for the chemical origin of life.
Footnotes
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↵ * E-mail: d.blackmond{at}imperial.ac.uk.
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This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
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Abbreviation: ee, enantiomeric excess.
- Copyright © 2004, The National Academy of Sciences
