A Review of Salam Phase Transition in Protein Amino Acids: Implication for Biomolecular Homochirality

Abstract

The origin of chirality, closely related to the evolution of life on the earth, has long been debated. In 1991, Abdus Salam suggested a novel approach to achieve biomolecular homochirality by a phase transition. In his subsequent publication, he predicted that this phase transition could eventually change D-amino acids to L-amino acids as C -H bond would break and H atom became a superconductive atom. Since many experiments denied the configuration change in amino acids, Salam hypothesis aroused suspicion. This paper is aimed to provide direct experimental evidence of a phase transition in alanine, valine single crystals but deny the configuration change of D- to L- enantiomers. New views on Salam phase transition are presented to revalidate its great importance in the origin of homochirality.