Homochiral selection

Once again, the Ghadiri group used the peptide with the leucine zip. Starting from a racemic mixture of the peptide fragments E and N (with 15 and 17 amino acids respectively), homochiral products were preferentially formed in a homochiral selection process in the catalytic self-replication cycle. The initial mixture contained the two peptide fragments, which each consisted of d- and L-amino acids, i.e., a total of four competing molecular species (NL, N°, EL and E°). Thus, four different products could be formed in the condensation reaction TLL, TDD, TLD and TDL. As stated above, TLL and TDD were formed preferentially. The experimental results can be summarized as shown in Fig. 5.8. 

Preparation of enantiomerically enriched materials by use of chiral catalysts is also based on differences in transition-state energies. While the reactant is part of a complex or intermediate containing a chiral catalyst, it is in a chiral environment. The intermediates and complexes containing each enantiomeric reactant and a homochiral catalyst are diastereomeric and differ in energy. This energy difference can then control selection between the stereoisomeric products of the reaction. If the reaction creates a new stereogenic center in the reactant molecule, there can be a preference for formation of one enantiomer over the other. 

There are very few examples of asymmetric synthesis using optically pure ions as chiral-inducing agents for the control of the configuration at the metal center. Chiral anions for such an apphcation have recently been reviewed by Lacour [19]. For example, the chiral enantiomerically pure Trisphat anion was successfully used for the stereoselective synthesis of tris-diimine-Fe(ll) complex, made configurationally stable because of the presence of a tetradentate bis(l,10-phenanthroline) ligand (Fig. 9) [29]. Excellent diastereoselectivity (>20 1) was demonstrated as a consequence of the preferred homochiral association of the anion and the iron(ll) complex and evidence for a thermodynamic control of the selectivity was obtained. The two diastereoisomers can be efficiently separated by ion-pair chromatography on silica gel plates with excellent yields. 

Compared to synthetic catalysts, enzymes have many advantages. First of all, being natural products, they are environmentally benign and therefore their use does not meet pubhc opposition. Enzymes act at atmospheric pressure, ambient temperature, and at pH between 4 and 9, thus avoiding extreme conditions, which might result in undesired side reactions. Enzymes are extremely selective (see below). There are also, of course, some drawbacks of biocatalysts. For example, enzymes are known in only one enantiomeric form, as they consist of natural enantiomeric (homochiral) amino acids their possible modifications are difficult to achieve (see Section 5.3.2) they are prone to deactivation owing to inappropriate operation parameters and to inhibition phenomena. 

The question also arises as to where the chiral molecules came from. Were the L-amino acids or the D-sugars selected on the primeval Earth, or are exuaterresuial sources responsible for the homochirality This second possibility is dealt with by hypotheses on the effect of circularly polarised light, of extraterrestrial origin, on chiral molecules in the molecular clouds from which the solar system was formed. One such hypothesis was proposed by Rubenstein et al. (1983) and developed further by others, particularly A. W. Bonner (Bonner and Rubenstein, 1987) both scientists worked at Stanford University. The authors believe that the actual radiation source was synchrotron radiation from supernovae. The excess of one enantiomeric form generated by this irradiation process would have needed to be transported to Earth by comets and meteorites, probably during the bombardment phase around 4.2-3.8 billion years ago. 

Another hypothesis on homochirality involves interaction of biomolecules with minerals, either at rock surfaces or at the sea bottom thus, adsorption processes of biomolecules at chiral mineral surfaces have been studied. Klabunovskii and Thiemann (2000) used a large selection of analytical data, provided by other authors, to study whether natural, optically active quartz could have played a role in the emergence of optical activity on the primeval Earth. Some researchers consider it possible that enantioselective adsorption by one of the quartz species (L or D) could have led to the homochirality of biomolecules. Asymmetric adsorption at enantiomor-phic quartz crystals has been detected L-quartz preferentially adsorbs L-alanine. Asymmetrical hydrogenation using d- or L-quartz as active catalysts is also possible. However, if the information in a large number of publications is averaged out, as Klabunovskii and Thiemann could show, there is no clear preference in nature for one of the two enantiomorphic quartz structures. It is possible that rhomobohedral... 

TiX4 is employed as an effective promoter for asymmetric aldol reactions. A chiral aldehyde or a chiral enolate reacts to afford homochiral aldol adducts with high selectivity (Scheme 20).78 79... 

Ever since the beginning of life on primitive Earth, biopolymers and biomolecules have essentially comprised optically active constituents because of the natural selection of Z-amino acids and tZ-sugars. Although the origin of this biomolecular handedness is a long debated issue among biologists, chemists, physicists, and astronomers,1 5 it is accepted that our life is a consequence of the chemistry of homochiral biosubstances. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a classic example of a chiral biopolymer. Its chirality is essentially characterized... 

Compound 72 was shown to display enantioselectivity in the extraction of chiral potassium salts from water into the organic phase.105 The supramolec-ular polymer possesses a homochiral helical architecture onto which one of the anionic enantiomers preferentially binds. Intriguingly, for some of the anions the octamer and polymer showed opposite selectivity, illustrating the difference in supramolecular chirality of the two systems. Furthermore, the polymer was capable of inducing a Cotton effect in the achiral compound potassium A-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)glycinate. Since the apolar side chains would... 

The first report to use diphosphite ligands in the asymmetric hydroformylation of vinyl arenes revealed no asymmetric induction [46]. An important breakthrough came in 1992 when Babin and Whiteker at Union Carbide patented the asymmetric hydroformylation of various alkenes with ee s up to 90%, using bulky diphosphites 2a-c derived from homochiral (2R, 4R)-pentane-2,4-diol (Scheme 4) [17]. Their early results showed that (a) bulky substituents are required at the ortho positions of the biphenyl moieties for good regio- and enantio-selectivity and (b) methoxy substituents in the para positions of the biphenyl moieties always produced better enantio-selectivities than those observed for the corresponding ferf-butyl-substituted analogues. 

Clearly what we need are verifying experimental demonstrations to help us select among the various mechanisms outlined above for the appearance of a small enantiomeric excess (e.e.) within a mixture of two enantiomers. Only after such an initiating event can an e.e. be amplified into the state of homochirality and enantiomeric purity necessary to permit the emergence of self-replicating biopolymers. In what... 

The stereochemical outcome for addition of r-l,3-dioxolan-4-yl and oxiranyl radicals to phenyl vinyl sulfone has been probed. The results indicated that the symanti selectivity could be altered by changing the group next to the radical in the diox-olanyl case but not in the oxiranyl case (bulky groups had a large xyn-directing effect) (Scheme 39). Several alkenyl-lactones and -lactams have been subjected to hydrosilylation conditions using carbohydrate-derived thiols as homochiral polarity reversal catalysts (yields 25-96% ee 5-95%) " ... 

Although modest, the results obtained with nonracemic lithium dialkylamides demonstrated the feasibility of such enantioselective transformations and important work has been undertaken from this date to improve both the yield and the ee values as well as developing a catalytic process. With this objective, both the use of homochiral lithium amide (HCLA) bases and organolithium-homochiral ligand complexes have been explored. This field has been extensively reviewed " and the following section presents a selection of the most outstanding results and recent developments. 

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