Why only L amino acids?

[Paul Baulch]

altabios at bham.ac.uk (John E. Fox) writes:

>In article <00981067.D5F37D80 at vms.csd.mu.edu>, 6566friedman at vms.csd.mu.edu says:
>>
>>Does anyone have a plausible hypothesis to explain why only L amino 
>>acids are used in proteins?  I am teaching an introductory course in 
>>biochemistry this summer and this question was raised by a student.  

>I agree with the others, its most probably by chance that one dominates.
>There are some theories that minerals acted as early templates, could these
>have some prefered orientation?

If so, the minerals themselves surely would have had stereochemistry.
Do any minerals with stereochemical lattices exist?

-- 
-shnub at zikzak.apana.org.au--------------rec.toys.lego forever!!!-------------
-----Paul Evan Baulch------Reality is by far the most impressive simulation.-