Journal article
S. Furkan Ozturk, Ziwei Liu, John D. Sutherland, Dimitar D. Sasselov
Science Advances, vol. 9(23), 2023
Science Advances, vol. 9(23), 2023
DOI:
10.1126/sciadv.adg8274
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APA
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Ozturk, S. F., Liu, Z., Sutherland, J. D., & Sasselov, D. D. (2023). Origin of biological homochirality by crystallization of an RNA precursor on a magnetic surface. Science Advances, 9(23). https://doi.org/ 10.1126/sciadv.adg8274
Chicago/Turabian
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Ozturk, S. Furkan, Ziwei Liu, John D. Sutherland, and Dimitar D. Sasselov. “Origin of Biological Homochirality by Crystallization of an RNA Precursor on a Magnetic Surface.” Science Advances 9, no. 23 (2023).
MLA
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Ozturk, S. Furkan, et al. “Origin of Biological Homochirality by Crystallization of an RNA Precursor on a Magnetic Surface.” Science Advances, vol. 9, no. 23, 2023, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adg8274.
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@article{s2023a,
title = {Origin of biological homochirality by crystallization of an RNA precursor on a magnetic surface},
year = {2023},
issue = {23},
journal = {Science Advances},
volume = {9},
doi = { 10.1126/sciadv.adg8274},
author = {Ozturk, S. Furkan and Liu, Ziwei and Sutherland, John D. and Sasselov, Dimitar D.}
}
Abstract
Homochirality is a signature of life on Earth, yet its origins remain an unsolved puzzle. Achieving homochirality is essential for a high-yielding prebiotic network capable of producing functional polymers like RNA and peptides on a persistent basis. Because of the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect, which established a strong coupling between electron spin and molecular chirality, magnetic surfaces can act as chiral agents and be templates for the enantioselective crystallization of chiral molecules. Here, we studied the spin-selective crystallization of racemic ribo-aminooxazoline (RAO), an RNA precursor, on magnetite (Fe3O4) surfaces, achieving an unprecedented enantiomeric excess (ee) of about 60%. Following the initial enrichment, we then obtained homochiral (100% ee) crystals of RAO after a subsequent crystallization. Our results demonstrate a prebiotically plausible way of achieving system-level homochirality from completely racemic starting materials, in a shallow-lake environment on early Earth where sedimentary magnetite deposits are expected to be common.