Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality
The origin of homochirality, the observed single-handedness of biological amino acids and sugars, has long been attributed to autocatalysis, a frequently assumed precursor for early life self-replication. However, the stability of homochiral states in deterministic autocatalytic systems relies on cr...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Physical Society
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109170 |
| _version_ | 1811092490615259136 |
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| author | Jafarpour, Farshid Biancalani, Tommaso Goldenfeld, Nigel |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Jafarpour, Farshid Biancalani, Tommaso Goldenfeld, Nigel |
| author_sort | Jafarpour, Farshid |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The origin of homochirality, the observed single-handedness of biological amino acids and sugars, has long been attributed to autocatalysis, a frequently assumed precursor for early life self-replication. However, the stability of homochiral states in deterministic autocatalytic systems relies on cross-inhibition of the two chiral states, an unlikely scenario for early life self-replicators. Here we present a theory for a stochastic individual-level model of autocatalytic prebiotic self-replicators that are maintained out of thermal equilibrium. Without chiral inhibition, the racemic state is the global attractor of the deterministic dynamics, but intrinsic multiplicative noise stabilizes the homochiral states. Moreover, we show that this noise-induced bistability is robust with respect to diffusion of molecules of opposite chirality, and systems of diffusively coupled autocatalytic chemical reactions synchronize their final homochiral states when the self-replication is the dominant production mechanism for the chiral molecules. We conclude that nonequilibrium autocatalysis is a viable mechanism for homochirality, without imposing additional nonlinearities such as chiral inhibition. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:18:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109170 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:18:41Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1091702022-10-02T02:06:46Z Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality Jafarpour, Farshid Biancalani, Tommaso Goldenfeld, Nigel Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Biancalani, Tommaso The origin of homochirality, the observed single-handedness of biological amino acids and sugars, has long been attributed to autocatalysis, a frequently assumed precursor for early life self-replication. However, the stability of homochiral states in deterministic autocatalytic systems relies on cross-inhibition of the two chiral states, an unlikely scenario for early life self-replicators. Here we present a theory for a stochastic individual-level model of autocatalytic prebiotic self-replicators that are maintained out of thermal equilibrium. Without chiral inhibition, the racemic state is the global attractor of the deterministic dynamics, but intrinsic multiplicative noise stabilizes the homochiral states. Moreover, we show that this noise-induced bistability is robust with respect to diffusion of molecules of opposite chirality, and systems of diffusively coupled autocatalytic chemical reactions synchronize their final homochiral states when the self-replication is the dominant production mechanism for the chiral molecules. We conclude that nonequilibrium autocatalysis is a viable mechanism for homochirality, without imposing additional nonlinearities such as chiral inhibition. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNA13AA91A) 2017-05-18T18:05:55Z 2017-05-18T18:05:55Z 2017-03 2016-11 2017-03-10T23:00:03Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2470-0045 2470-0053 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109170 Jafarpour, Farshid; Biancalani, Tommaso and Goldenfeld, Nigel. "Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality." Physical Review E 95, no. 032407 (March 2017): 1-18 ©2017 American Physical Society en http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.95.032407 Physical Review E Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. American Physical Society application/pdf American Physical Society American Physical Society |
| spellingShingle | Jafarpour, Farshid Biancalani, Tommaso Goldenfeld, Nigel Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality |
| title | Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality |
| title_full | Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality |
| title_fullStr | Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality |
| title_full_unstemmed | Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality |
| title_short | Noise-induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality |
| title_sort | noise induced symmetry breaking far from equilibrium and the emergence of biological homochirality |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109170 |
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