Biological homochirality, such as that of l-amino acids, has been a puzzle with regards to the chemical origin of life. Asymmetric autocatalysis is a reaction in which a chiral product acts as an asymmetric catalyst to produce more of itself in the same absolute configuration. 5-Pyrimidyl alkanol was found to act as an asymmetric autocatalyst in the enantioselective addition of diisopropylzinc to pyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde. Asymmetric autocatalysis of 2-alkynyl-5-pyrimidyl alkanol with an extremely low enantiomeric excess of ca. 0.00005% exhibited significant asymmetric amplification to afford the same pyrimidyl alkanol with >99.5% enantiomeric excess and with an increase in the quantity of the same compound. We have employed asymmetric autocatalysis to examine the origin of homochirality. Asymmetric autocatalysis triggered by circularly polarized light, chiral minerals such as quartz, chiral organic crystals composed of achiral compounds gave highly enantioenriched pyrimidyl alkanol with absolute configurations corresponding with those of the chiral triggers. Absolute asymmetric synthesis without the intervention of any chiral factor was achieved. Chiral isotopomers acted as chiral triggers of asymmetric autocatalysis.

中文翻译：

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不对称自催化。手性对称性的破坏和有机分子同手性的起源。

关于生物的化学手性，例如1-氨基酸，一直是关于生命的化学起源的难题。不对称自催化是一种反应，其中手性产物充当不对称催化剂，以相同的绝对构型产生更多的自身。发现5-嘧啶基链烷醇在将二异丙基锌对映选择性加成到嘧啶-5-甲醛中作为不对称自催化剂。具有非常低的对映体过量的ca的2-炔基-5-嘧啶基链烷醇的不对称自催化。0.00005％表现出显着的不对称扩增，以提供对映体过量＞ 99.5％且具有相同化合物的量增加的相同嘧啶基链烷醇。我们已经采用不对称自动催化来检查同手性的起源。由圆偏振光触发的不对称自催化，手性矿物（如石英），由非手性化合物组成的手性有机晶体，可得到高度对映体富集的嘧啶烷醇，其绝对构型与手性引发剂的构型相对应。无需任何手性因子的干预，即可实现绝对不对称合成。手性同位素异构体充当不对称自催化的手性引发剂。