Energy threshold for chiral symmetry breaking in molecular self-replication

Abstract

The homochirality of biological molecules (right-handed sugars and left-handed amino acids) is a signature of life. Extensive research has been devoted to understanding how enrichment of one enantiomer over the other might have emerged from a prebiotic world. Here, we use experimental data from the model Soai autocatalytic reaction system to evaluate the energy required for symmetry breaking and chiral amplification in molecular self-replication. One postulate for the source of the original imbalance is the tiny difference in energy between enantiomers due to parity violation in the weak force. We discuss the plausibility of parity violation energy difference coupled with asymmetric autocatalysis as a rationalization for absolute asymmetric synthesis and the origin of the homochirality of biological molecules. Our results allow us to identify the magnitude of the energy imbalance that gives rise to directed symmetry breaking and asymmetric amplification in this autocatalytic system.