Selective adsorption of L- and D-amino acids on calcite: Implications for biochemical homochirality

The emergence of biochemical homochirality was a key step in the origin of life, yet prebiotic mechanisms for chiral separation are not well constrain ed. Here we demonstrate a geochemically plausible scenario for chiral separ ation of amino acids by adsorption on mineral surfaces. Crystals of the com mon rock-forming mineral calcite (CaCO3), when immersed in a racemic aspart ic acid solution, display significant adsorption and chiral selectivity of D- and L-enantiomers on pairs of mirror-related crystal-growth surfaces. Th is selective adsorption is greater on crystals with terraced surface textur es, which indicates that D- and L-aspartic acid concentrate along step-like linear growth features. Thus, selective adsorption of linear arrays of D- and L-amino acids on calcite, with subsequent condensation polymerization, represents a plausible geochemical mechanism for the production of homochir al polypeptides on the prebiotic Earth.