3-Apr-2025
#MolecularClock analysis shows #bacteria used #oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis
Scientists use the #GreatOxidationEvent and how organisms adapted to it to map bacterial #evolution
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1078069 #science #astrobiology
Molecular clock analysis shows bacteria used oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis
In a new study published in Science, researchers from the Model-Based Evolutionary Genomics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and their international collaborators have constructed a detailed timeline for bacterial evolution and oxygen adaptation. Their findings suggest some bacteria could use trace oxygen long before evolving the ability to produce it through photosynthesis.
#MolecularClock analysis shows #bacteria used oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-molecular-clock-analysis-bacteria-oxygen.html
A geological timescale for bacterial #evolution and oxygen adaptation https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ADP1853
"the earliest aerobic transition occurred in an ancestor of photosynthetic #cyanobacteria, indicating that the ability to utilize trace amounts of oxygen may have allowed the development of genes central to oxygenic #photosynthesis."
Molecular clock analysis shows bacteria used oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis
Microbial organisms dominate life on Earth, but tracing their early history and evolution is difficult because they rarely fossilize. Determining when exactly a particular group of microbes first appeared is especially hard. However, ancient sediments and rocks hold chemical clues of available nutrients that could support the growth of bacteria.
Leo Featherstone (@LeoPhylostone)
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michael
Lukas VFN πͺπΊ
Guillaume Louvel
Phys.org