Science Of The Times

Some biological  molecules can be left handed or right handed - the sugars that are found in nucleic acids are right handed, whereas 19 of the 20 amino acids that make up proteins are left handed. And intriguingly samples of amino acids found on meteorites such as those brought back from the OSIRIX-REx missing from Bennu were present in mixtures containing roughly equal amounts of the left and right handed versions. So why does biology on our planet favour left handed amino acids?

A team of researchers led by Professor Tom Richard at the University of Oxford have shown that lipid membranes that surround and protect our cells and importantly control which types of molecules can get in and out are more leaky to left hand amino acids.

This may suggest why left handed amino acids are the ones from which our proteins are constructed.

A link to Toms Paper:
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003155

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