NATURE has generally segregated two great living Kingdoms by the chirality of their molecules. The majority of living organisms have (mostly) only one type, while bacteria have (mostly) the opposite. Curiously, partly with advances in detection, the bacterial chirality has been found to play key roles in non-bacterial life forms. View in LinkedIn
"HOMOCHIRALITY of biological amino acids (L-amino acids) and of the RNA/DNA backbone (D-ribose) might have have become established on the primitive earth." https://lnkd.in/e7QJSwN View in LinkedIn
OVERSIGHT. "Therefore, the presence and function of D-amino acids have not been studied except for D-amino acids in the cell walls of micro organisms." https://lnkd.in/e7QJSwN View in LinkedIn
"L-AMINO ACIDS are predominant in living organisms, but D-amino acids such as D-alanine and D-glutamate also occur in eubacteria like cell walls." https://lnkd.in/ef3s3ff View in LinkedIn
"MOST BACTERIA produce significant amounts of D-alanine (D-Ala) and D-glutamate (D-Glu), which are incorporated into peptidoglycan." https://lnkd.in/eVWBM_B View in LinkedIn
BACTERIAL DEFENSE. "The number of D-amino acids present in the structure of peptidoglycan seems to constitute a measure of protection against peptidase and protease attacks." https://lnkd.in/eVWBM_B View in LinkedIn
TWO WORLDS. "So far, no peptidase capable of hydrolyzing a peptide bond characterized by the sequence DD or DL amino acids has been isolated in mammals." https://lnkd.in/eVWBM_B View in LinkedIn
"BACTERIA synthesize a pool of different D-amino acids, including D-methionine (D-Met) and D-leucine (D-Leu) in Vibrio cholerae and D-tyrosine (D-Tyr) and D-phenylalanine (D-Phe) in Bacillus subtilis." https://lnkd.in/eVWBM_B View in LinkedIn
BACTERIAL D-AMINO ACIDS. "By selectively incorporating them in the peptidoglycan cell wall, bacteria cope with different environmental stresses." https://lnkd.in/eVWBM_B View in LinkedIn