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The only answer I can offer (I must admit that I am not objective and promote the idea I published with my friend some two years ago) is as follows: alfa-ribopyranose (which is in solution in equilibrium with beta-ribopyranose, both furanose forms and an open form) is the easiest racemate to get separated to enantiomers in a process we call the absolute enantioselective separation (AES). It is a chromatography-like process in which the molecules to be separated are oriented in two orthogonal directions parallel to the surface. Then, in opposite enantiomers different groups are oriented towards the surface. Thus, the energy of interactions of opposite enantiomers with the surface is different and in a chromatography-like process the molecules of the opposite enantiomers will move along the surface with different rates. Additionally, AES is capable of separating not only enantiomers but other isomers (including diastereoisomers) as well. The factors that can orient molecules in (more or less) orthogonal directions that are parallel to the surface are:

1. electric field plus an interaction of molecules with a pattern on the (flat) surface or

2. interactions with two independent patterns on the (chiral) surface.

A racemate of ribose is easier to get separated to enantiomers than other mono- saccharides because in one enantiomer all four (including the anomeric one) hydroxy groups are oriented towards the surface while in the opposite enantiomer all these OH groups are oriented against the surface, and thus, the energy of interactions between the enantiomers and the surface is the largest for alfa-DL-ribopyranose. Our answer to the "why ribose" question is that (under specific conditions) it was the only mono- saccharide that could have been isolated in an enantiomerically pure form which is likely to be a necessary condition for the life emergence. [Current Organic Chemistry, 12(12) (2008), 995; Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 37(2007), 167]. The plausible answer to the question "why is ribose in the beta-furanose form" has been offered by Banfalvi [DNA Cell Biol., 2006, 25, 189].

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16y ago

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