Cover Feature: Determining the Diastereoselectivity of the Formation of Dipeptidonucleotides by NMR Spectroscopy (Chem. Eur. J. 54/2021)

Abstract

The origin of homochirality is one of the unresolved issues of prebiotic chemistry. Why are the amino acids found in proteins of the l configuration? Perhaps peptido nucleotides could have played a role as transitional species, as suggested visually by the Archaeopteryx in the image. It was recently shown that these phosphoramidate‐linked species form spontaneously from simple precursors. Now, the diastereoselectivity of the the dipeptide‐forming step has been determined by in‐situ NMR spectroscopy, revealing that homochiral products are preferred. This is reported in the Full Paper by C. Richert et al. (DOI: 10.1002/chem.202101630).