Abstract We point out an intrinsic weakness in the reasoning that adduces a statistical fluctuation as the origin of a left-handed, prebiotic stereoisomeric asymmetry which might have been the initial asymmetry that led to the left-handed asymmetry of proteins observed now on Earth. The argument in favor of a statistical fluctuation as the source of the asymmetry depends implicitly on the assumption of a very small number of terrestrial sites at which polymerization leading to protein formation took place. On the other hand, the probability that a left-handed prebiotic asymmetry produced by a specific mechanism was efficacious would have increased linearly with the number of terrestrial sites. Thus, on the basis of the greater likelihood of a large number of possible polymerization sites in the prebiotic era, a random fluctuation is deemed to be a much less probable source of a stereoisomeric asymmetry than a specific mechanism, particularly the mechanism that follows from the parity violating weak interaction.


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    Title :

    Statistical fluctuation versus specific mechanism and the origin of the left-handed asymmetry of proteins


    Contributors:
    Mann, A. K. (author) / Primakoff, H. (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    1983




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    Local classification TIB:    535/3908/4290
    BKL:    44.71 Verkehrsmedizin




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