MEANING OF CHIRAL PURITY OF BIOMOLECULES FOR SELF-REPRODUCTION OF ORGANISMS

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  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 21  (2) , 238-247
Abstract
Living systems mainly synthesize and utilize chirally pure polymers which have only 1 form of enantiomer (L,L,...,L-proteins, D,D,D,...,D-sugars). The biological meaning of chiral purity of molecules in organisms is discussed. Chiral purity is necessary to ensure ordering of organisms during self-reproduction. Even when the formation of a chirally pure form does not have any advantages over the formation of a set of other stereoisomers, only chirally pure molecules may act as regulators of further syntheses. Molecules with distorted chiral purity are not able to maintain the initial order during self-reproduction.

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