Advances in BioChirality

by C. Zucchi, L. Caglioti, Gyula Palyi

Overview

Chirality is a fundamental, persistent, but often overlooked feature of all living organisms on the molecular level as well as on the macroscopic scale. The high degree of preference for only one of two possible mirror image forms in Nature, often called biological homochirality is a puzzling, and not yet fully understood, phenomenon.

This book covers biological homochirality from an interdisciplinary approach - contributions range from synthetic chemists, theoretical topologists and physicists, from palaeontologists and biologists to space scientists and representatives of the pharmaceutical and materials industries.

Topics covered include - theory of biochirality, origins of biochirality, autocatalysis with amplification of chirality, macroscopic (present) biochirality, fossil records of chiral organisms - paleochirality, extraterrestrial origin of chirality, exceptions to the rule of biological homochirality, D-amino acids, chemical transfer of chirality, PV effects, and polarised radiation chemistry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780080434049
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	10/19/1999
Pages:	407
Product dimensions:	1.00(w) x 6.14(h) x 9.21(d)

About the Author

Dr. Pályi is a Professor (Retired) of Chemistry of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Modena, Italy) and member of the (Italian) National Academy of Science as well as other Academies. He has authored and edited 5 books on chemistry, patents, and 250 publications cited more than 2000 times by other authors. He has been the chief organizer of the International Symposia on Biological Chirality (since 1998) and of the International Symposia on the Soai Reaction (since 2008).

Table of Contents

Selected chapter headings: Preface. (C. Bartolacelli). Dimensions of Biological Homochirality (G. Pályi et al.). Theory of Biological Homochirality: Chirality, Symmetry Deficiency, and Electron-Cloud Holography in the Shape Analysis of Biomolecules (P.G. Mezey). On the Biological Advantage of Chirality (G. Gilat). Possible Mechanisms for Spontaneous Production of Enantiomeric Excess (D.Z. Lippmann, J. Dix). Search for the Origin of Homochirality of Biomolecules (L. Keszthelyi). The Role of Homochirality in Evolution (Z. Nansheng). Asymmetric Autocatalysis and Biomolecular Chirality (K. Soai, T. Shibata). Left-right Asymmetry in Animal Embryogenesis (M. Levin). Evolutionary Origin of Asymmetry in Early Metazoans (J. Dzik). Application of Amino Acid Racemization in Fossil Pleistocene Vertebrate and Invertebrate Analysis. Preservation of Proteins and Amino Acids (T. de Torres). Biomarker Reaction Kinetics during Kerogen Microscale Pyrolysis (G.D. Abbott, A.W. Scott). The Abiotic Generation of Homochirality on Saturn's Moon Titan (J.I. Lunine et al.). D-Amino Acids in Nature (Y. Nagata). Racemization-induced Defolding and Aggregation of Segments of β-Amyloid Protein: An Early Step in the Formation of Amyloid Plaques (Zs. Majer et al.) Occurrence and Biosynthesis of Animal Peptides Containing a D-amino acid (G. Kreil). Spontaneous D-Aspartic Acid Formation at Specific Sites of Lens Protein During Aging (N. Fujii et al.) Asymmetric Phenomena in Studies of Encapsulation and Assembly (J. Rebek Jr.). Self-assembly of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Polyesters and their Stereoselective Interaction with Liposomes of DMPC (M. Pérez-Mendez et al.). Transferring Chirality in Homogeneous Catalysis (P.S. Pregosin). Chiroptical Properties of (S)-(—) Methyl Glycolate-d1 (A. Forni et al.).

Editorial Reviews

"Every chemist working with chiral compounds and also every biologist has obviously already asked the question: "How did the molecular and macroscopic homochirality of biological systems evolve starting from a racemic prebiological world? And furthermore, how perfect is this homochirality and what are its general consequences?" This book which is based on the contributions presented at an international symposium on biological homochirality offers the first comprehensive review of these fundamental questions of biochirality. It is a real gold mine of ideas for further research to everybody interested in this very far-reaching subject including chemists, biologists, physicists, geologists and even cosmochemists." —László Markó, University of Veszprem, Hungary

From the Publisher