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Chirality in Nature

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.

Prochirality

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...

Chirality

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...

Fischer Projections

Fischer Projections

Learning to draw Fischer projections of molecules and understanding their relevance plays a crucial role in the visual depiction of organic molecules. A Fischer projection is a two-dimensional projection on a planar surface to simplify the three-dimensional wedge–dash representation of molecules. This is especially helpful in the case of molecules with multiple chiral centers that can be difficult to draw. Here, all the bonds of interest are represented as horizontal or vertical lines.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 27, 2025

Improving the Success Rate of Protein Crystallization by Random Microseed Matrix Screening

Improving the Success Rate of Protein Crystallization by Random Microseed Matrix Screening

Published on: August 31, 2013

Crystal Prediction via Genetic Algorithms in a Model Chiral System.

Nikolai D Petsev¹, Arash Nikoubashman², Folarin Latinwo^1,3

¹Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B

|September 26, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers used genetic algorithms to predict chiral crystal structures, aiding in understanding biological homochirality and advancing drug discovery. This work clarifies the stability and structures of conglomerate and racemic crystals.

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Improving the Success Rate of Protein Crystallization by Random Microseed Matrix Screening

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Fully Autonomous Characterization and Data Collection from Crystals of Biological Macromolecules

Fully Autonomous Characterization and Data Collection from Crystals of Biological Macromolecules

Published on: March 22, 2019

Area of Science:

Crystallography
Chemical Physics
Computational Chemistry

Background:

Chiral crystals are vital for understanding biological homochirality and for drug discovery, design, and stability.
Predicting stable chiral crystal structures is essential for technologies like separation processes and polymorph control.
Challenges in prediction arise from complex many-body interactions and molecular handedness.

Purpose of the Study:

To apply genetic algorithms for predicting ground-state crystal lattices of a chiral tetramer molecular model.
To investigate the relative stability and structures of conglomerate and racemic crystals.
To present a structural phase diagram for stable Bravais crystal types at zero temperature.

Main Methods:

Utilized genetic algorithms to model and predict crystal lattice structures.
Analyzed the behavior of a chiral tetramer molecular model.
Explored stability and structural properties of different crystal types.

Main Results:

Successfully predicted ground-state crystal lattices for the chiral tetramer model.
Determined the relative stability and structures of conglomerate and racemic crystals.
Generated a structural phase diagram for stable Bravais crystal types.

Conclusions:

Genetic algorithms provide a robust method for predicting chiral crystal structures.
The study enhances understanding of crystal formation and stability for chiral molecules.
Findings contribute to advancements in drug discovery and materials science.