Homochirality in biomineral suprastructures induced by assembly of single-enantiomer amino acids from a nonracemic mixture.

ABSTRACT: Since Pasteur first successfully separated right-handed and left-handed tartrate crystals in 1848, the understanding of how homochirality is achieved from enantiomeric mixtures has long been incomplete. Here, we report on a chirality dominance effect where organized, three-dimensional homochiral suprastructures of the biomineral calcium carbonate (vaterite) can be induced from a mixed nonracemic amino acid system. Right-handed (counterclockwise) homochiral vaterite helicoids are induced when the amino acid L-Asp is in the majority, whereas left-handed (clockwise) homochiral morphology is induced when D-Asp is in the majority. Unexpectedly, the Asp that incorporates into the homochiral vaterite helicoids maintains the same enantiomer ratio as that of the initial growth solution, thus showin

SUBMITTER: Jiang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6534569 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature