A Review of Salam Phase Transition in Protein Amino Acids: Implication for Biomolecular Homochirality
Abstract
Description
The origin of chirality, closely related to the evolution of life on the earth, has long been debated. In 1991, Abdus Salam suggested a novel approach to achieve biomolecular homochirality by a phase transition. In his subsequent publication, he predicted that this phase transition could eventually change D-amino acids to L-amino acids as C -H bond would break and H atom became a superconductive atom. Since many experiments denied the configuration change in amino acids, Salam hypothesis aroused suspicion. This paper is aimed to provide direct experimental evidence of a phase transition in alanine, valine single crystals but deny the configuration change of D- to L- enantiomers. New views on Salam phase transition are presented to revalidate its great importance in the origin of homochirality.
20 pages, 12 figures, new progress in understanding of homochirality
20 pages, 12 figures, new progress in understanding of homochirality