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Sumner DY. Oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere induced metabolic and ecologic transformations recorded in the Lomagundi-Jatuli carbon isotopic excursion. Appl Environ Microbiol 2024; 90:e0009324. [PMID: 38819147 PMCID: PMC11218651 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00093-24] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024] Open
Abstract
The oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere represents the quintessential transformation of a planetary surface by microbial processes. In turn, atmospheric oxygenation transformed metabolic evolution; molecular clock models indicate the diversification and ecological expansion of respiratory metabolisms in the several hundred million years following atmospheric oxygenation. Across this same interval, the geological record preserves 13C enrichment in some carbonate rocks, called the Lomagundi-Jatuli excursion (LJE). By combining data from geologic and genomic records, a self-consistent metabolic evolution model emerges for the LJE. First, fermentation and methanogenesis were major processes remineralizing organic carbon before atmospheric oxygenation. Once an ozone layer formed, shallow water and exposed environments were shielded from UVB/C radiation, allowing the expansion of cyanobacterial primary productivity. High primary productivity and methanogenesis led to preferential removal of 12C into organic carbon and CH4. Extreme and variable 13C enrichments in carbonates were caused by 13C-depleted CH4 loss to the atmosphere. Through time, aerobic respiration diversified and became ecologically widespread, as did other new metabolisms. Respiration displaced fermentation and methanogenesis as the dominant organic matter remineralization processes. As CH4 loss slowed, dissolved inorganic carbon in shallow environments was no longer highly 13C enriched. Thus, the loss of extreme 13C enrichments in carbonates marks the establishment of a new microbial mat ecosystem structure, one dominated by respiratory processes distributed along steep redox gradients. These gradients allowed the exchange of metabolic by-products among metabolically diverse organisms, providing novel metabolic opportunities. Thus, the microbially induced oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere led to the transformation of microbial ecosystems, an archetypal example of planetary microbiology.IMPORTANCEThe oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere represents the most extensive known chemical transformation of a planetary surface by microbial processes. In turn, atmospheric oxygenation transformed metabolic evolution by providing oxidants independent of the sites of photosynthesis. Thus, the evolutionary changes during this interval and their effects on planetary-scale biogeochemical cycles are fundamental to our understanding of the interdependencies among genomes, organisms, ecosystems, elemental cycles, and Earth's surface chemistry through time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dawn Y. Sumner
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA
- Microbiology Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA
- Feminist Research Institute, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA
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Ray M, Manu S, Rastogi G, Umapathy G. Cyanobacterial Genomes from a Brackish Coastal Lagoon Reveal Potential for Novel Biogeochemical Functions and Their Evolution. J Mol Evol 2024; 92:121-137. [PMID: 38489069 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-024-10159-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/24/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
Cyanobacteria are recognised for their pivotal roles in aquatic ecosystems, serving as primary producers and major agents in diazotrophic processes. Currently, the primary focus of cyanobacterial research lies in gaining a more detailed understanding of these well-established ecosystem functions. However, their involvement and impact on other crucial biogeochemical cycles remain understudied. This knowledge gap is partially attributed to the challenges associated with culturing cyanobacteria in controlled laboratory conditions and the limited understanding of their specific growth requirements. This can be circumvented partially by the culture-independent methods which can shed light on the genomic potential of cyanobacterial species and answer more profound questions about the evolution of other key biogeochemical functions. In this study, we assembled 83 cyanobacterial genomes from metagenomic data generated from environmental DNA extracted from a brackish water lagoon (Chilika Lake, India). We taxonomically classified these metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) and found that about 92.77% of them are novel genomes at the species level. We then annotated these cyanobacterial MAGs for all the encoded functions using KEGG Orthology. Interestingly, we found two previously unreported functions in Cyanobacteria, namely, DNRA (Dissimilatory Nitrate Reduction to Ammonium) and DMSP (Dimethylsulfoniopropionate) synthesis in multiple MAGs using nirBD and dsyB genes as markers. We validated their presence in several publicly available cyanobacterial isolate genomes. Further, we identified incongruities between the evolutionary patterns of species and the marker genes and elucidated the underlying reasons for these discrepancies. This study expands our overall comprehension of the contribution of cyanobacteria to the biogeochemical cycling in coastal brackish ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manisha Ray
- Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India
- CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, 500007, India
| | - Shivakumara Manu
- Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India
- CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, 500007, India
| | - Gurdeep Rastogi
- Wetland Research and Training Centre, Chilika Development Authority, Balugaon, Odisha, 752030, India
| | - Govindhaswamy Umapathy
- Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India.
- CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, 500007, India.
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Wei GY, Zhao M, Sperling EA, Gaines RR, Kalderon-Asael B, Shen J, Li C, Zhang F, Li G, Zhou C, Cai C, Chen D, Xiao KQ, Jiang L, Ling HF, Planavsky NJ, Tarhan LG. Lithium isotopic constraints on the evolution of continental clay mineral factory and marine oxygenation in the earliest Paleozoic Era. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadk2152. [PMID: 38552018 PMCID: PMC10980266 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk2152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/01/2024]
Abstract
The evolution of oxygen cycles on Earth's surface has been regulated by the balance between molecular oxygen production and consumption. The Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic transition likely marks the second rise in atmospheric and oceanic oxygen levels, widely attributed to enhanced burial of organic carbon. However, it remains disputed how marine organic carbon production and burial respond to global environmental changes and whether these feedbacks trigger global oxygenation during this interval. Here, we report a large lithium isotopic and elemental dataset from marine mudstones spanning the upper Neoproterozoic to middle Cambrian [~660 million years ago (Ma) to 500 Ma]. These data indicate a dramatic increase in continental clay formation after ~525 Ma, likely linked to secular changes in global climate and compositions of the continental crust. Using a global biogeochemical model, we suggest that intensified continental weathering and clay delivery to the oceans could have notably increased the burial efficiency of organic carbon and facilitated greater oxygen accumulation in the earliest Paleozoic oceans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guang-Yi Wei
- School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
| | - Mingyu Zhao
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Erik A. Sperling
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | | | - Boriana Kalderon-Asael
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
| | - Jun Shen
- State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Chao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation and Institute of Sedimentary Geology, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
- Key Laboratory of Deep-time Geography and Environment Reconstruction and Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
- International Center for Sedimentary Geochemistry and Biogeochemistry Research, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
| | - Feifei Zhang
- School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Gaojun Li
- School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Chuanming Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Center for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
| | - Chunfang Cai
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Daizhao Chen
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ke-Qing Xiao
- State Key Lab of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shuangqing Rd. 18, 10085, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Lei Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Hong-Fei Ling
- School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Noah J. Planavsky
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
| | - Lidya G. Tarhan
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
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Vermeij GJ. The illusion of balance in the history of the biosphere. GEOBIOLOGY 2024; 22:e12584. [PMID: 38385604 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12584] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Revised: 12/15/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024]
Abstract
Earth's surface has been irreversibly altered by the activity of organisms, a process that has accelerated as the power of the biosphere (the rate at which life extracts and deploys energy) has increased over time. This trend is incompatible with the expectation that the inputs to Earth's surface of life's materials from the crust and mantle be matched by export from Earth's surface to long-term reservoirs. Here, I suggest that the collective activity of organisms has always violated this balance. The biosphere's ability to extract, retain, recycle, and accumulate materials has allowed living biomass to increase and for exports to decrease over very long timescales. This collective metabolism implies a net transfer of materials from the planet's interior to its surface. The combination of metabolic innovations, competition, adaptive evolution, and the establishment of collaborative economic feedback in ecosystems created dynamic ecological stability despite great spatial and temporal heterogeneity in physical and biological inputs and export of nutrients into and out of the biosphere. Models of geochemical cycling must take the fundamental role of living organisms and the evolutionary changes in these roles into account to explain past and future conditions.
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Martinez-Gutierrez CA, Uyeda JC, Aylward FO. A timeline of bacterial and archaeal diversification in the ocean. eLife 2023; 12:RP88268. [PMID: 38059790 DOI: 10.7554/elife.88268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Microbial plankton play a central role in marine biogeochemical cycles, but the timing in which abundant lineages diversified into ocean environments remains unclear. Here, we reconstructed the timeline in which major clades of bacteria and archaea colonized the ocean using a high-resolution benchmarked phylogenetic tree that allows for simultaneous and direct comparison of the ages of multiple divergent lineages. Our findings show that the diversification of the most prevalent marine clades spans throughout a period of 2.2 Ga, with most clades colonizing the ocean during the last 800 million years. The oldest clades - SAR202, SAR324, Ca. Marinimicrobia, and Marine Group II - diversified around the time of the Great Oxidation Event, during which oxygen concentration increased but remained at microaerophilic levels throughout the Mid-Proterozoic, consistent with the prevalence of some clades within these groups in oxygen minimum zones today. We found the diversification of the prevalent heterotrophic marine clades SAR11, SAR116, SAR92, SAR86, and Roseobacter as well as the Marine Group I to occur near to the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (0.8-0.4 Ga). The diversification of these clades is concomitant with an overall increase of oxygen and nutrients in the ocean at this time, as well as the diversification of eukaryotic algae, consistent with the previous hypothesis that the diversification of heterotrophic bacteria is linked to the emergence of large eukaryotic phytoplankton. The youngest clades correspond to the widespread phototrophic clades Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and Crocosphaera, whose diversification happened after the Phanerozoic Oxidation Event (0.45-0.4 Ga), in which oxygen concentrations had already reached their modern levels in the atmosphere and the ocean. Our work clarifies the timing at which abundant lineages of bacteria and archaea colonized the ocean, thereby providing key insights into the evolutionary history of lineages that comprise the majority of prokaryotic biomass in the modern ocean.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Josef C Uyeda
- Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, United States
| | - Frank O Aylward
- Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, United States
- Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, United States
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Lim Y, Seo JH, Giovannoni SJ, Kang I, Cho JC. Cultivation of marine bacteria of the SAR202 clade. Nat Commun 2023; 14:5098. [PMID: 37607927 PMCID: PMC10444878 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40726-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Bacteria of the SAR202 clade, within the phylum Chloroflexota, are ubiquitously distributed in the ocean but have not yet been cultivated in the lab. It has been proposed that ancient expansions of catabolic enzyme paralogs broadened the spectrum of organic compounds that SAR202 bacteria could oxidize, leading to transformations of the Earth's carbon cycle. Here, we report the successful cultivation of SAR202 bacteria from surface seawater using dilution-to-extinction culturing. The growth of these strains is very slow (0.18-0.24 day-1) and is inhibited by exposure to light. The genomes, of ca. 3.08 Mbp, encode archaella (archaeal motility structures) and multiple sets of enzyme paralogs, including 80 genes coding for enolase superfamily enzymes and 44 genes encoding NAD(P)-dependent dehydrogenases. We propose that these enzyme paralogs participate in multiple parallel pathways for non-phosphorylative catabolism of sugars and sugar acids. Indeed, we demonstrate that SAR202 strains can utilize several substrates that are metabolized through the predicted pathways, such as sugars ʟ-fucose and ʟ-rhamnose, as well as their lactone and acid forms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yeonjung Lim
- Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea
- Center for Molecular and Cell Biology, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea
| | - Ji-Hui Seo
- Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea
| | | | - Ilnam Kang
- Center for Molecular and Cell Biology, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea.
| | - Jang-Cheon Cho
- Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea.
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Stevenson DS. A New Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective on the Emergence of Oxygenic Photosynthesis. ASTROBIOLOGY 2023; 23:230-237. [PMID: 36413050 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2021.0165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
In this hypothesis article, we propose that the timing of the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and the diversification of cyanobacteria is firmly tied to the geological evolution of Earth in the Mesoarchean to Neoarchean. Specifically, the diversification of species capable of oxygenic photosynthesis is tied to the growth of subaerial (above sea-level/terrestrial) continental crust, which provided niches for their diversification. Moreover, we suggest that some formerly aerobic bacterial lineages evolved to become anoxygenic photosynthetic as a result of changes in selection following the reintroduction of ferruginous conditions in the oceans at 1.88 GYa. Both conclusions are fully compatible with phylogenetic evidence. The hypothesis carries with it a predictive component-at least for terrestrial organisms-that the development and expansion of photosynthesis species was dependent on the geological evolution of Earth.
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Reconciling discrepant minor sulfur isotope records of the Great Oxidation Event. Nat Commun 2023; 14:279. [PMID: 36650167 PMCID: PMC9845385 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-35820-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the timing and trajectory of atmospheric oxygenation remains fundamental to deciphering its causes and consequences. Given its origin in oxygen-free photochemistry, mass-independent sulfur isotope fractionation (S-MIF) is widely accepted as a geochemical fingerprint of an anoxic atmosphere. Nevertheless, S-MIF recycling through oxidative sulfide weathering-commonly termed the crustal memory effect (CME)-potentially decouples the multiple sulfur isotope (MSI) record from coeval atmospheric chemistry. Herein, however, after accounting for unrecognised temporal and spatial biases within the Archaean-early-Palaeoproterozoic MSI record, we demonstrate that the global expression of the CME is barely resolvable; thereby validating S-MIF as a tracer of contemporaneous atmospheric chemistry during Earth's incipient oxygenation. Next, utilising statistical approaches, supported by new MSI data, we show that the reconciliation of adjacent, yet seemingly discrepant, South African MSI records requires that the rare instances of post-2.3-billion-year-old S-MIF are stratigraphically restricted. Accepting others' primary photochemical interpretation, our approach demands that these implied atmospheric dynamics were ephemeral, operating on sub-hundred-thousand-year timescales. Importantly, these apparent atmospheric relapses were fundamentally different from older putative oxygenation episodes, implicating an intermediate, and potentially uniquely feedback-sensitive, Earth system state in the wake of the Great Oxidation Event.
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Bettendorff L. Reduced Nucleotides, Thiols and O 2 in Cellular Redox Balance: A Biochemist's View. Antioxidants (Basel) 2022; 11:1877. [PMID: 36290600 PMCID: PMC9598635 DOI: 10.3390/antiox11101877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 09/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/16/2022] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
In the present review, which is aimed at researchers, teachers and students in life sciences, we try to show how the physicochemical properties of the elements and molecules define the concept of redox balance. Living organism are open systems traversed by fluxes of energy and matter. During catabolic oxidative metabolism, matter-mostly hydrogenated organic molecules-is oxidized and ultimately released as CO2. Electrons are passed over to coupling molecules, such as NAD+ and FAD, whose reduced forms serve as electrons donors in anabolic reactions. Early photosynthetic activity led to the accumulation of O2 and the transformation of the reduction to an oxidizing atmosphere, favoring the development of oxidative metabolism in living organisms. We focus on the specific properties of O2 that provide the chemical energy for the combustion reactions occurring in living cells. We explain the concepts of redox potential and redox balance in complex systems such as living cells, we present the main redox couples involved in cellular redox balance and we discuss the chemical properties underlying their cellular roles and, in particular, their antioxidant properties in the defense against reactive oxygen species (ROS). Finally, we try to provide an integrative view emphasizing the interplay between metabolism, oxidative stress and metabolic compartmentation in mammalian cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucien Bettendorff
- Laboratory of Neurophysiology, GIGA Neurosciences, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium
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