Electron spin and the origin of Bio-homochirality II. Prebiotic inorganic-organic reaction model

TL;DR

This paper explores how electron spin properties in certain minerals could have influenced the prebiotic synthesis of chiral molecules, potentially explaining the origin of biological homochirality before life began.

Contribution

It proposes a new prebiotic inorganic-organic reaction model involving mineral electron spin properties that may have contributed to the origin of biomolecular homochirality.

Findings

Electron spin properties in Fe3S4, ZnS, and doped ZnS may influence chiral molecule formation.

Minerals in hydrothermal vents could have played a role in prebiotic synthesis.

The proposed model offers a testable hypothesis for the origin of life's homochirality.

Abstract

The emergence of biomolecular homochirality is a critically important question about life phenomenon and the origins of life. In a previous paper (arXiv:1309.1229), I tentatively put forward a new hypothesis that the emergence of a single chiral form of biomolecules in living organisms is specifically determined by the electron spin state during their enzyme-catalyzed synthesis processes. However, how a homochirality world of biomolecules could have formed in the absence of enzymatic networks before the origins of life remains unanswered. Here I discussed the electron spin properties in Fe3S4, ZnS, and transition metal doped dilute magnetic ZnS, and their possible roles in the prebiotic synthesis of chiral molecules. Since the existence of these minerals in hydrothermal vent systems is matter of fact, the suggested prebiotic inorganic-organic reaction model, if can be experimentally demonstrated, may help explain where and how life originated on early Earth.