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Chirality (biology)

 

 
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Chirality (biology)
 
 
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Biological chirality refers to the handedness, or chirality
Chirality (chemistry)

The term chiral is used to describe an object that is non-Superposition on its mirror image.Human hands are perhaps the most universally recognized example of chirality: The left hand is a non-superposable mirror image of the right hand; no matter how the two hands are oriented, it is impossible for all the major features of both hands...
 of biological molecules, such as amino acids and sugars, within a living organism.

Many biological molecules have the property that they can be configured into two orientations that are mirror-images of each other, known as enantiomerism
Enantiomer

In chemistry, an enantiomer is one of two stereoisomers that are Superpose complete mirror images of each other, much as one's left and right Chirality are "the same" but opposite....
. The terms "left-handed" and "right-handed" are used to distinguish the two orientations. In all known life-forms, amino acids, which are building blocks of proteins, are left-handed (L
Levorotation and dextrorotation

Dextrorotation and levorotation refer, respectively, to the properties of rotating plane polarized light clockwise or counterclockwise ....
) and sugars are right-handed (D
Levorotation and dextrorotation

Dextrorotation and levorotation refer, respectively, to the properties of rotating plane polarized light clockwise or counterclockwise ....
).






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Biological chirality refers to the handedness, or chirality
Chirality (chemistry)

The term chiral is used to describe an object that is non-Superposition on its mirror image.Human hands are perhaps the most universally recognized example of chirality: The left hand is a non-superposable mirror image of the right hand; no matter how the two hands are oriented, it is impossible for all the major features of both hands...
 of biological molecules, such as amino acids and sugars, within a living organism.

Many biological molecules have the property that they can be configured into two orientations that are mirror-images of each other, known as enantiomerism
Enantiomer

In chemistry, an enantiomer is one of two stereoisomers that are Superpose complete mirror images of each other, much as one's left and right Chirality are "the same" but opposite....
. The terms "left-handed" and "right-handed" are used to distinguish the two orientations. In all known life-forms, amino acids, which are building blocks of proteins, are left-handed (L
Levorotation and dextrorotation

Dextrorotation and levorotation refer, respectively, to the properties of rotating plane polarized light clockwise or counterclockwise ....
) and sugars are right-handed (D
Levorotation and dextrorotation

Dextrorotation and levorotation refer, respectively, to the properties of rotating plane polarized light clockwise or counterclockwise ....
). This observation, where a particular orientation of a class of biological molecules are preferred to their chiral counterparts, is known as biological homochirality
Homochirality

Homochirality is a term used to refer to a group of molecules that possess the same sense of Chirality . Molecules involved are not necessarily the same compound, but similar groups are arranged in the same way around a central atom....
. The driving mechanism for biological homochirality is not well understood.

Scientists speculate the possibility of "mirror life" that are made of the opposite handed enantiomers. Biochemically, such mirror life can almost be identical to known life.