Chirality of meteoritic free and IOM-derived monocarboxylic acids and 
implications for prebiotic organic synthesis

Aponte, José C.; Tarozo, Rafael; Alexandre, Marcelo R.; Alexander, Conel M.O’D.; Charnley, Steven B.; Hallmann, Christian; Summons, Roger E.; Huang, Yongsong

doi:10.1016/j.gca.2014.01.035

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Chirality of meteoritic free and IOM-derived monocarboxylic acids and implications for prebiotic organic synthesis

MPS-Authors

/persons/resource/persons104837

Hallmann, Christian
Research Group Organic Paleo-Biogeochemistry, Dr. C. Hallmann, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Max Planck Society;

External Resource

No external resources are shared

Fulltext (restricted access)

There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Aponte, J. C., Tarozo, R., Alexandre, M. R., Alexander, C. M., Charnley, S. B., Hallmann, C., et al. (2014). Chirality of meteoritic free and IOM-derived monocarboxylic acids and implications for prebiotic organic synthesis. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 131, 1-12. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2014.01.035.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0003-EAAB-5

Abstract

The origin of homochirality and its role in the development of life on Earth are among the most intriguing questions in
science. It has been suggested that carbonaceous chondrites seeded primitive Earth with the initial organic compounds necessary
for the origin of life. One of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting this theory is that certain amino acids in carbonaceous
chondrites display a significant L-enantiomeric excess (ee), similar to those use by terrestrial life. Analyses of ee in
meteoritic molecules other than amino acids would shed more light on the origins of homochirality. In this study we investigated
the stereochemistry of two groups of compounds: (1) free monocarboxylic acids (MCAs) from CM2 meteorites LON
94101 and Murchison; and (2) the aliphatic side chains present in the insoluble organic matter (IOM) and extracted in the
form of monocarboxylic acids (MCAs) from EET 87770 (CR2) and Orgueil (CI1). Contrary to the well-known ee observed
for amino acids in meteorites, we found that meteoritic branched free and IOM-derived MCAs with 5–8 carbon atoms are
essentially racemic. The racemic nature of these compounds is used to discuss the possible influence of ultraviolet circularly
polarized light (UVCPL) and aqueous alterations on the parent body on chirality observed in in carbonaceous chondrites.