Optical activity and living matter

Gauze, G F

doi:10.5962/bhl.title.4523

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Accordingly since the time of Pasteur chirality and optical activity have been considered a principal criterion for life, both on Earth (Gause, 1941) and elsewhere in the universe (Halpern et al, 1966;Draffen et al, 1969;Brack and Spach, 1987). they possess nonsuperposable 'right-' (D) or 'left-handed' (L) 3-dimensional mirror image structures) and are usually optically active (capable of rotating the plane of polarized light).…”

Section: Chirality and Chiral Homogeneity In Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

The origin and amplification of biomolecular chirality

Bonner

1991

Origins Life Evol Biosphere

529

370

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Chirality and Chiral Homogeneity In Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

The origin and amplification of biomolecular chirality

Bonner

1991

Origins Life Evol Biosphere

529

370

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…L-amino acids, D-sugars). This apparently obligatory association between chirality and living systems has been called the unique criterion of life (1).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthesis and properties of an all‐D model ribonuclease S‐peptide

Corigliano-Murphy

Liang

Ponnamperuma

et al. 1985

International Journal of Peptide and Protein Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In order to examine the effect of a defined enantiomeric sequence on protein structure, the all‐d model ribonuclease S‐peptide, H‐Ala‐Glu‐Ala4‐Lys‐Phe‐Ala‐Arg‐Ala‐His‐Met‐Ala2‐OH, has been synthesized by the solid phase method. The all‐L peptide has been synthesized previously and shown to possess 36% of ribonuclease S activity when added to ribonuclease S‐protein (Komoriya, A. & Chaiken, I.M. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 2599–2604). The synthetic d‐peptide was purified by gel filtration and semipreparative reverse phase HPLC. Amino acid composition of the synthetic peptide was in agreement with theory and gas chromatographic analysis showed that no significant racemization had occurred during synthesis. Circular dichroism (CD) studies of the d‐peptide showed a peak of positive ellipticity in the 220–230 nm region, whereas a negative ellipticity peak for the l‐peptide was observed. The effects of temperature and trifluoroethanol on the far‐ultraviolet CD spectra of d‐ and l‐peptides were similar but of opposite sign, confirming the expectation that the d‐peptide has the propensity to form an α‐helical structure which is enantiomeric with respect to that formed by the l‐peptide. In the presence of S‐protein, the l‐peptide showed hydrolytic activity against the substrate cytidine‐2′:3′‐monophosphate, whereas the d‐peptide was inactive. Addition of the d‐peptide to mixtures of l‐peptide and S‐protein did not lead to inhibition of enzymatic activity. These results indicate lack of binding of d‐peptide to S‐protein to produce either an active or inactive species.

show abstract

“…Parvulescu (28) discusses the organization of living matter, and Gause (29) considers the possible application of some organiza tion concepts of topology to the asymmetric organization of proto plasm.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%