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<\/p>\nMagnetic surfaces can sway spin selectivity, resulting in different reaction rates for enantiomers.1 The discovery of this interaction between mirror molecules and magnetic fields could explain the origins of homochirality on Earth and early life, in particular in prebiotic peptides and RNA.<\/p>\n
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Most biomolecules exhibit a single handedness \u2013 normally natural amino acids have L symmetry, whereas sugars are predominantly D enantiomers. The origins of this phenomenon have puzzled researchers for decades, until an electronic effect emerged as a plausible explanation. This effect, known as chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS), demonstrates the selection of a specific spin state in electrons travelling through chiral and magnetic materials.<\/p>\n
What do we mean when we talk about molecules being left- and right-handed?<\/p>\n
Chiral: A molecule is said to be chiral if that molecule and its mirror image are non-superimposable \u2013 one molecule is akin to your left hand and the other the right.<\/p>\n
Stereochemistry:\u00a0\u00a0The study of the three-dimensional structure of molecules.<\/p>\n
Enantiomer: Chiral molecules that are mirror images of one another are called enantiomers. All other stereoisomers are diastereoisomers.<\/p>\n
Diastereoisomers: Stereoisomers are either enantiomers or diastereoisomers. Chiral molecules that have the relationship of mirror images are called enantiomers. All other stereoisomers are diastereoisomers including E\/Z -isomers.<\/p>\n
Epimer: Diastereoisomers that differ in only one configuration of two or more chiral elements.<\/p>\n
Regioselective: A regioselective reaction is one in which one direction of bond making or breaking occurs preferentially over all other possible directions.<\/p>\n
Stereocentre: Any atom in a molecule such that the interchange of two of its substituent groups leads to the formation of a different stereoisomer.<\/p>\n
Stereoisomers: Compounds that exhibit the same constitution (the same molecular formula and connectivity of atoms) but different spatial arrangements. Stereoisomers can be further classified as enantiomers and diastereoisomers.<\/p>\n
In this case, combining magnetite, a naturally-occurring magnetic mineral, and ribose aminooxazoline, with a well-known prebiotic precursor of RNA, resulted in surprisingly different CISS interactions for the two enantiomers. The magnetic measurements in mirror molecules differ \u2018by a factor of three\u2019, according to this study, which affected spin selectivity and reactivity. This study \u2018supports that, if and once homochirality was selected for a pivotal RNA precursor, it could then propagate \u2026 to nucleotides, RNA and, potentially, peptides\u2019, explains Claudia Bonfio<\/a>, who studies the origins of life at the University of Cambridge, UK, and wasn\u2019t involved in this work.<\/p>\n In this work, the rate of reaction for the RNA precursor aminooxazoline differed depending on the enantiomer, explains lead author Ron Naaman<\/a>\u00a0from the Weizmann Institute in Israel. Although previous studies suggested opposite outcomes if mirror molecules were exposed to north and south oriented magnets, \u2018it was assumed [reaction] rates in both cases were identical\u2019, explains Naaman. Now that\u2019s no longer the case. The only requirement to create an enantiomeric excess \u2018is to have a magnetic surface\u2019, he adds.<\/p>\n