this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
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[–] recklessengagement@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Makes me wonder how all life came to use exclusively L-protiens.

Perhaps there was once a time where they both existed on the primordial earth, and natural selection preferred one over the other.

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

natural selection preferred one over the other

Given enough time, a fitness-neutral variant will tend to fixation due to drift alone, unless there are density-dependent effects (i.e., unless being relatively rare increases fitness). The article is concerned that there may be some such effect, but the extinction of any primordial chiral life suggests that there isn’t.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

I read about it a while ago. Apparently, right-chiradial proteins can't produce some molecules the left ones can or react entirely different. I guess lc was just more practical?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

Or one just happened to get access to a resource first (e.g. large clump of nutrients) and just grew faster.

[–] JoMomma@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can put my right glove on my left hand

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

That's like the invert sugar of gloves.