The Chiral Puzzle of Life

Abstract

Biological molecules chose one of two structurally, chiral systems which are related by reflection in a mirror. It is proposed that this choice was made, causally, by magnetically polarized and physically chiral cosmic-rays, which are known to have a large role in mutagenesis. It is shown that the cosmic rays can impose a small, but persistent, chiral bias in the rate at which they induce structural changes in simple, chiral monomers that are the building blocks of biopolymers. A much larger effect should be present with helical biopolymers, in particular, those that may have been the progenitors of RNA and DNA. It is shown that the interaction can be both electrostatic, just involving the molecular electric field, and electromagnetic, also involving a magnetic field. It is argued that this bias can lead to the emergence of a single, chiral life form over an evolutionary timescale. If this mechanism dominates, then the handedness of living systems should be universal. Experiments are proposed to assess the efficacy of this process.

18 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1911.02525

References in corpus (2)

• Origin of the RNA World: The Fate of Nucleobases in Warm Little Ponds
• Giant chiroptical effect caused by the electric quadrupole

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• Emergence of homochirality via template-directed ligation in an RNA reactor
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• The energetic particle environment of a GJ 436 b-like planet
• Polarized radiation and the Emergence of Biological Homochirality on Earth and Beyond
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