TITLE:
Potential Prebiotic Relevance of Glycine Single Crystals Enclosing Fluid Inclusions: An Experimental and Computer Simulation with Static Magnetic Fields
AUTHORS:
E. Angeles-Camacho, J. Cruz-Castañeda, A. Meléndez, M. Colín-García, K. Cervantes de la Cruz, S. Ramos-Bernal, A. Negrón-Mendoza, G. Garza-Ramos, P. Rodríguez-Zamora, C. Camargo-Raya, A. Heredia
KEYWORDS:
Glycine Polymorphs, Fluid Inclusions, Gamma Irradiation, Chemical Evolution, FT-IR, Circular Dichroism, Chiral Crystals
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Biological Chemistry,
Vol.10 No.5,
October
30,
2020
ABSTRACT: Glycine
crystallizes into three different polymorphs called α, β and γ under standard physicochemical
conditions. They have different features depending on their structural
variations. The possible interaction of glycine with magnetic minerals in
meteorites and comets or in the ancient Earth, paves the way to study the self-assembly
and molecular behavior under irradiation and magnetic conditions. The magnetic
field might induce the formation of a specific polymorph of glycine. To gain
insight on the consequences of gamma irradiation with a gradient of static
magnetic fields (0.06 T, 0.3 T, 0.42 T and 0.6 T) on the self-assembly of
single macroscopic glycine crystals, we gamma irradiated the powdered amino
acid and then assembled single crystals from water solutions. The preliminary
results showed a stable formation of fluid inclusions
in the single crystals and no straightforward effect on the self-assem- bly process after glycine
gamma irradiation and interaction with static magnetic fields. The α glycine polymorph single crystals
formed at 55° from the magnetic longitudinal axis and seemed to be enhanced by
gamma radiation. The γ-glycine single crystals presented L and D circular dichroism
signals, whereas the irradiated samples presented no circular dichroism
bands. Com- puter simulations suggest different catalytic properties from α and γ glycine crystals.