Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-23T10:20:14.986Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Diffuse Reflectance Circular Dichroism for the Detection of Molecular Chirality: An Application in Remote Sensing of Flora

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2017

Ramon D. Wolstencroft ,
George E. Tranter  and
Delphine D. Le Pevelen
Ramon D. Wolstencroft
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK & The U.K. Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, U.K.
George E. Tranter
Affiliation:
Biospectroscopy Laboratory, Biological Chemistry, Biomedical Sciences Division, Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, London, SW7 2AZ, U.K.
Delphine D. Le Pevelen
Affiliation:
Biospectroscopy Laboratory, Biological Chemistry, Biomedical Sciences Division, Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, London, SW7 2AZ, U.K.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Terrestrial biochemistry is based upon chiral (handed) molecules, of which only one of the two possible hands is predominantly employed. This biomolecular “homochirality”, may be a universal “signature” of life. Along with all living organisms, plant leaves are constructed from arrays of chiral molecules of a single hand. Through the development of a new spectroscopic approach, Diffuse Reflectance Circular Dichroism in the UV-visible wavelength regions, we have detected this chirality non-invasively from non-specular light scattered by leaves. The characteristic spectra are sensitive to plant species and leaf age/health. The technique may provide a means of remote sensing the state of flora and, at closer range, an indicator of living organisms for interplanetary landers.

Type
Astrochemistry
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 213: Bioastronomy 2002: Life Among the stars , 2004 , pp. 149 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

References

Tranter, G. E. 1986, J. Theor. Biol., 119, 467 Google Scholar
Garrett, R. H., & Grisham, C. M. 1995, in Biochemistry (London: Harcourt Brace), 698 Google Scholar
Glazer, A. N., & Melis, A. 1987, Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology, 38, 11 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindon, J. C., Tranter, G. E., & Holmes, J. L. 2000, in Encyclopedia of Spectroscopy & Spectrometry (London: Academic Press)Google Scholar
Vogelmann, T. C. 1993, Annual Review Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology, 44, 231 Google Scholar
Purves, W. K., Sadava, D., Orians, G. H., & Heller, C. 2001, in Life: The Science of Biology, 6th Ed (US: Sinauer Associates & WH Freeman)Google Scholar
Wolstencroft, R. D. 1974, in Planets, Stars and Nebulae studied with photopolarimetry, ed. Gehrels, T. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press), 495 Google Scholar
Wolstencroft, R. D. 1996, in Searching for Life in the Solar System and Beyond, http://www.fas.org/spp/eprint/mars_uk/Wolstencroft.html Google Scholar