Optical Rotation of Peptides. VIII. Glutamic Acid Tripeptides1

1954 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 1811-1814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Sachs ◽  
Erwin Brand
Keyword(s):  
Glutamic Acid ◽  
Optical Rotation

Homochirality as the Signature of Extra-Terrestrial Life

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 505-510
Author(s):  
Alexandra J. MacDermott ◽  
Laurence D. Barron ◽  
Andrè Brack ◽  
Thomas Buhse ◽  
John R. Cronin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Protein Synthesis ◽  
Optical Rotation ◽  
Physical Origin ◽  
Natural Choice ◽  
Rosetta Mission ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
Subsurface Layers ◽  
Solar System Bodies ◽  
Origin Of Homochirality

AbstractThe most characteristic hallmark of life is its homochirality: all biomolecules are usually of one hand, e.g. on Earth life uses only L-amino acids for protein synthesis and not their D mirror images. We therefore suggest that a search for extra-terrestrial life can be approached as a Search for Extra- Terrestrial Homochirality (SETH). The natural choice for a SETH instrument is optical rotation, and we describe a novel miniaturized space polarimeter, called the SETH Cigar, which could be used to detect optical rotation as the homochiral signature of life on other planets. Moving parts are avoided by replacing the normal rotating polarizer by multiple fixed polarizers at different angles as in the eye of the bee. We believe that homochirality may be found in the subsurface layers on Mars as a relic of extinct life, and on other solar system bodies as a sign of advanced pre-biotic chemistry. We discuss the chiral GC-MS planned for the Roland lander of the Rosetta mission to a comet and conclude with theories of the physical origin of homochirality.

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