This book discusses the role of homochirality in the origin of life and how both aspects walk together alongside the evolutionary line. The author discusses homochiral symmetry breaking, exploring chiral forces, amino acid distribution in meteorites, notably the Murchison meteorite, and the origins of single chirality in biogenesis. The book also covers the homochirality of phospholipids, outlining autocatalytic models in biological homochirality and the intriguing phenomenon of mirror symmetry breaking in liquids.

In this book, readers will find a critical analysis of preferential enrichment as a catalyst for homochirality emergence, seamlessly bridging the domains of systems chemistry and systems biology. The book further explores the factors influencing the homochirality of proteins, including their origin, structure, and biochemical function. In the final two chapters, the author provides forward-looking perspectives on symmetry breaking, evolution, and the link between cell chirality and left-right asymmetric morphogenesis.

This book appeals to a broad audience from undergraduate to PhD students, and scientists and professionals working in different disciplines, including physics, mathematicians, chemists, synthetic biologists, astrobiologists and astronomers.

Michele Fiore is an Associated Professor of organic chemistry at the University of Lyon, France, and periodically an invited Professor at the Universities of Siena, Salerno, and Pavia in Italy. He carries on research on homochirality emergence using phospholipid models. With a PhD in Agrochemistry and 20+ years of experience in organic synthesis of different classes of molecules, his main expertise relies on prebiotic chemistry, devoting his career to chiral molecules such as sugars, amino acids, and phospholipids. His research fields vary from the total synthesis of synthetic vaccines, to enantiopure or chiral phospholipids to dyes for the confocal imaging of cells. One main aspect of the current research is on the origin of life studies and, in particular, on the role of phospholipids and the transition between racemic mixtures (plausibly formed under prebiotic conditions) and enantiopure ones. He is the author of different book chapters and, as editor for Life (MDPI, Basel), he edited two special issues on the origin of life and prebiotic chemistry. More recently, he has been an editor upon the invitation of the Royal Chemical Society. He is also the author of 60+ scientific articles.