1
|
Lyons TW, Tino CJ, Fournier GP, Anderson RE, Leavitt WD, Konhauser KO, Stüeken EE. Co-evolution of early Earth environments and microbial life. Nat Rev Microbiol 2024; 22:572-586. [PMID: 38811839 DOI: 10.1038/s41579-024-01044-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/21/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024]
Abstract
Two records of Earth history capture the evolution of life and its co-evolving ecosystems with interpretable fidelity: the geobiological and geochemical traces preserved in rocks and the evolutionary histories captured within genomes. The earliest vestiges of life are recognized mostly in isotopic fingerprints of specific microbial metabolisms, whereas fossils and organic biomarkers become important later. Molecular biology provides lineages that can be overlayed on geologic and geochemical records of evolving life. All these data lie within a framework of biospheric evolution that is primarily characterized by the transition from an oxygen-poor to an oxygen-rich world. In this Review, we explore the history of microbial life on Earth and the degree to which it shaped, and was shaped by, fundamental transitions in the chemical properties of the oceans, continents and atmosphere. We examine the diversity and evolution of early metabolic processes, their couplings with biogeochemical cycles and their links to the oxygenation of the early biosphere. We discuss the distinction between the beginnings of metabolisms and their subsequent proliferation and their capacity to shape surface environments on a planetary scale. The evolution of microbial life and its ecological impacts directly mirror the Earth's chemical and physical evolution through cause-and-effect relationships.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Timothy W Lyons
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
- Virtual Planetary Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
| | - Christopher J Tino
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
| | - Gregory P Fournier
- Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Rika E Anderson
- Virtual Planetary Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Biology Department, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA
| | - William D Leavitt
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Kurt O Konhauser
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Eva E Stüeken
- Virtual Planetary Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Guido A, Calcagnile M, Talà A, Tredici SM, Belmonte G, Alifano P. Microbial consortium involved in ferromanganese and francolite biomineralization in an anchialine environment (Zinzulùsa Cave, Castro, Italy). THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 936:173423. [PMID: 38797412 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173423] [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: 03/04/2024] [Revised: 05/03/2024] [Accepted: 05/19/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Tidally-influenced subterranean settings represent natural geomicrobiological laboratories, relatively unexplored, that facilitate the investigation of new biomineralization processes. The unusual water chemistry of Zinzulùsa Cave and its oligotrophic and aphotic conditions have allowed the development of a unique ecosystem in which complex bacterial activities induce rare biomineralization processes. A diversified microbial community develops on centimeter-thick crusts that form in the submerged part of the cave. The crusts are formed of Ca-phosphate minerals, mostly carbonate-fluoroapatite (francolite), covered by a black crust, few microns in thickness, composed of ferromanganiferous oxides (hematite and vernadite). Diffuse coccoidal and filamentous bacteria and amorphous organic matter are mixed with the minerals. The micromorphologies and comparative 16S rRNA gene-based metabarcoding analyses identify a "core microbiota" also common to other natural environments characterized by FeMn and Ca-phosphate mineralization. The microbiota is characterized by nitrifying, sulfide/sulfur/thiosulfate-oxidizing and sulfate/thiosulfate/sulfur-reducing bacteria. In addition, manganese-oxidizing bacteria include the recently described "Ca. Manganitrophus noduliformans" and an abundance of bacteria belonging to the Planctomycetes-Verrucomicrobia-Chlamydiae (PVC) superphylum, as well as Haliangiales (fruiting body-forming bacteria) and Hyphomicrobiales (stalked and budding bacteria) that are known to produce extracellular polymers that trap iron and manganese oxides. 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding analysis showed the presence of bacteria able to utilize many organic P substrates, including Ramlibacter, and SEM images revealed traces of fossilized microorganisms resembling "cable bacteria", which may play a role in Ca-phosphate biomineralization. Overall, the data indicate biomineralization processes induced by microbial metabolic activities for both ferromanganiferous oxide and francolite components of these crusts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Adriano Guido
- Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende, Cosenza, Italy.
| | - Matteo Calcagnile
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
| | - Adelfia Talà
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
| | | | - Genuario Belmonte
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
| | - Pietro Alifano
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Mrnjavac N, Degli Esposti M, Mizrahi I, Martin WF, Allen JF. Three enzymes governed the rise of O 2 on Earth. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA. BIOENERGETICS 2024; 1865:149495. [PMID: 39004113 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2024.149495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2024] [Revised: 06/30/2024] [Accepted: 07/02/2024] [Indexed: 07/16/2024]
Abstract
Current views of O2 accumulation in Earth history depict three phases: The onset of O2 production by ∼2.4 billion years ago; 2 billion years of stasis at ∼1 % of modern atmospheric levels; and a rising phase, starting about 500 million years ago, in which oxygen eventually reached modern values. Purely geochemical mechanisms have been proposed to account for this tripartite time course of Earth oxygenation. In particular the second phase, the long period of stasis between the advent of O2 and the late rise to modern levels, has posed a puzzle. Proposed solutions involve Earth processes (geochemical, ecosystem, day length). Here we suggest that Earth oxygenation was not determined by geochemical processes. Rather it resulted from emergent biological innovations associated with photosynthesis and the activity of only three enzymes: 1) The oxygen evolving complex of cyanobacteria that makes O2; 2) Nitrogenase, with its inhibition by O2 causing two billion years of oxygen level stasis; 3) Cellulose synthase of land plants, which caused mass deposition and burial of carbon, thus removing an oxygen sink and therefore increasing atmospheric O2. These three enzymes are endogenously produced by, and contained within, cells that have the capacity for exponential growth. The catalytic properties of these three enzymes paved the path of Earth's atmospheric oxygenation, requiring no help from Earth other than the provision of water, CO2, salts, colonizable habitats, and sunlight.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Natalia Mrnjavac
- Department of Biology, Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich Heine University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany
| | | | - Itzhak Mizrahi
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, Marcus Family Campus, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
| | - William F Martin
- Department of Biology, Institute for Molecular Evolution, Heinrich Heine University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany
| | - John F Allen
- Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Ostrander CM, Heard AW, Shu Y, Bekker A, Poulton SW, Olesen KP, Nielsen SG. Onset of coupled atmosphere-ocean oxygenation 2.3 billion years ago. Nature 2024; 631:335-339. [PMID: 38867053 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07551-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 05/09/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024]
Abstract
The initial rise of molecular oxygen (O2) shortly after the Archaean-Proterozoic transition 2.5 billion years ago was more complex than the single step-change once envisioned. Sulfur mass-independent fractionation records suggest that the rise of atmospheric O2 was oscillatory, with multiple returns to an anoxic state until perhaps 2.2 billion years ago1-3. Yet few constraints exist for contemporaneous marine oxygenation dynamics, precluding a holistic understanding of planetary oxygenation. Here we report thallium (Tl) isotope ratio and redox-sensitive element data for marine shales from the Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa. Synchronous with sulfur isotope evidence of atmospheric oxygenation in the same shales3, we found lower authigenic 205Tl/203Tl ratios indicative of widespread manganese oxide burial on an oxygenated seafloor and higher redox-sensitive element abundances consistent with expanded oxygenated waters. Both signatures disappear when the sulfur isotope data indicate a brief return to an anoxic atmospheric state. Our data connect recently identified atmospheric O2 dynamics on early Earth with the marine realm, marking an important turning point in Earth's redox history away from heterogeneous and highly localized 'oasis'-style oxygenation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Chadlin M Ostrander
- Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
- Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
- NIRVANA Laboratories, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
| | - Andy W Heard
- NIRVANA Laboratories, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
| | - Yunchao Shu
- NIRVANA Laboratories, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
| | - Andrey Bekker
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
- Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa
| | - Simon W Poulton
- School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
| | - Kasper P Olesen
- Nordcee, Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Sune G Nielsen
- NIRVANA Laboratories, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- CRPG, CNRS, Université de Lorraine, Vandoeuvre lès Nancy, France
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Bhattacharya P, Bag R, Butcher RJ, Behera S, Mondal B, Goswami S. Chemistry of a series of heterobimetallic complexes MnIII2(Ca II/Sr II)X 2 (X = Cl -, Br -). Dalton Trans 2024; 53:2324-2332. [PMID: 38205727 DOI: 10.1039/d3dt01858j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
This manuscript describes the syntheses, structures and magnetism of MnIII-CaII/SrII complexes which are compositionally relevant in the context of the oxygen evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PS II). A series of trimetallic tetraoxo complexes containing redox-inactive metal ions CaII or SrII were synthesized using a tetranucleating ligand framework. The structural characteristics of these complexes, with the oxido ligands bridging the redox-inactive metals and the manganese centres, make them particularly relevant to biological and heterogeneous metal-oxido clusters. Electrochemical studies of these compounds show that the reduction potentials are highly dependent upon the Lewis acidity of the redox-inactive metal, identifying the chemical basis for the observed differences in electrochemistry. This correlation provides insights into the role of the CaII/SrII ion in modulating the redox potential of the OEC and of other redox-inactive ions in tuning the redox potentials of other metal-oxide electrocatalysts. Temperature dependent magnetic measurements have also been performed for the complexes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Riya Bag
- Department of Chemistry, University of Calcutta, 92, A.P.C. Road, Kolkata-700009, India.
| | - Ray J Butcher
- Chemistry Department, Howard University, Washington, D.C. 20059, USA
| | - Snehanjali Behera
- Discipline of Chemistry, IIT Gandhinagar, Palaj, Gujarat - 382055, India
| | - Biswajit Mondal
- Discipline of Chemistry, IIT Gandhinagar, Palaj, Gujarat - 382055, India
| | - Sanchita Goswami
- Department of Chemistry, University of Calcutta, 92, A.P.C. Road, Kolkata-700009, India.
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Chen M, Sawicki A, Wang F. Modeling the Characteristic Residues of Chlorophyll f Synthase (ChlF) from Halomicronema hongdechloris to Determine Its Reaction Mechanism. Microorganisms 2023; 11:2305. [PMID: 37764149 PMCID: PMC10535343 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11092305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2023] [Revised: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Photosystem II (PSII) is a quinone-utilizing photosynthetic system that converts light energy into chemical energy and catalyzes water splitting. PsbA (D1) and PsbD (D2) are the core subunits of the reaction center that provide most of the ligands to redox-active cofactors and exhibit photooxidoreductase activities that convert quinone and water into quinol and dioxygen. The performed analysis explored the putative uncoupled electron transfer pathways surrounding P680+ induced by far-red light (FRL) based on photosystem II (PSII) complexes containing substituted D1 subunits in Halomicronema hongdechloris. Chlorophyll f-synthase (ChlF) is a D1 protein paralog. Modeling PSII-ChlF complexes determined several key protein motifs of ChlF. The PSII complexes included a dysfunctional Mn4CaO5 cluster where ChlF replaced the D1 protein. We propose the mechanism of chlorophyll f synthesis from chlorophyll a via free radical chemistry in an oxygenated environment created by over-excited pheophytin a and an inactive water splitting reaction owing to an uncoupled Mn4CaO5 cluster in PSII-ChlF complexes. The role of ChlF in the formation of an inactive PSII reaction center is under debate, and putative mechanisms of chlorophyll f biosynthesis are discussed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Min Chen
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
7
|
Hay Mele B, Monticelli M, Leone S, Bastoni D, Barosa B, Cascone M, Migliaccio F, Montemagno F, Ricciardelli A, Tonietti L, Rotundi A, Cordone A, Giovannelli D. Oxidoreductases and metal cofactors in the functioning of the earth. Essays Biochem 2023; 67:653-670. [PMID: 37503682 PMCID: PMC10423856 DOI: 10.1042/ebc20230012] [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: 05/14/2023] [Revised: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
Life sustains itself using energy generated by thermodynamic disequilibria, commonly existing as redox disequilibria. Metals are significant players in controlling redox reactions, as they are essential components of the engine that life uses to tap into the thermodynamic disequilibria necessary for metabolism. The number of proteins that evolved to catalyze redox reactions is extraordinary, as is the diversification level of metal cofactors and catalytic domain structures involved. Notwithstanding the importance of the topic, the relationship between metals and the redox reactions they are involved in has been poorly explored. This work reviews the structure and function of different prokaryotic organometallic-protein complexes, highlighting their pivotal role in controlling biogeochemistry. We focus on a specific subset of metal-containing oxidoreductases (EC1 or EC7.1), which are directly involved in biogeochemical cycles, i.e., at least one substrate or product is a small inorganic molecule that is or can be exchanged with the environment. Based on these inclusion criteria, we select and report 59 metalloenzymes, describing the organometallic structure of their active sites, the redox reactions in which they are involved, and their biogeochemical roles.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Hay Mele
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Maria Monticelli
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
- National Research Council - Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry - CNR-ICB, Pozzuoli, Italy
| | - Serena Leone
- Dipartimento di Biologia ed Evoluzione degli Organismi Marini, Stazione Zoologica Anton. Dohrn, Napoli, Italy
| | - Deborah Bastoni
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Bernardo Barosa
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Martina Cascone
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Flavia Migliaccio
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | | | | | - Luca Tonietti
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
- Department of Science and Technology, University of Naples Parthenope, Naples, Italy
| | - Alessandra Rotundi
- Department of Science and Technology, University of Naples Parthenope, Naples, Italy
| | - Angelina Cordone
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
| | - Donato Giovannelli
- Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
- Department of Science and Technology, University of Naples Parthenope, Naples, Italy
- National Research Council - Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnologies - CNR-IRBIM, Ancona, Italy
- Department of Marine and Coastal Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, U.S.A
- Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA, U.S.A
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Huang Y, Huangfu X, Ma C, Liu Z. Sequestration and oxidation of heavy metals mediated by Mn(II) oxidizing microorganisms in the aquatic environment. CHEMOSPHERE 2023; 329:138594. [PMID: 37030347 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138594] [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: 02/14/2023] [Revised: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Microorganisms can oxidize Mn(II) to biogenic Mn oxides (BioMnOx), through enzyme-mediated processes and non-enzyme-mediated processes, which are generally considered as the source and sink of heavy metals due to highly reactive to sequestrate and oxidize heavy metals. Hence, the summary of interactions between Mn(II) oxidizing microorganisms (MnOM) and heavy metals is benefit for further work on microbial-mediated self-purification of water bodies. This review comprehensively summarizes the interactions between MnOM and heavy metals. The processes of BioMnOx production by MnOM has been firstly discussed. Moreover, the interactions between BioMnOx and various heavy metals are critically discussed. On the one hand, modes for heavy metals adsorbed on BioMnOx are summarized, such as electrostatic attraction, oxidative precipitation, ion exchange, surface complexation, and autocatalytic oxidation. On the other hand, adsorption and oxidation of representative heavy metals based on BioMnOx/Mn(II) are also discussed. Thirdly, the interactions between MnOM and heavy metals are also focused on. Finally, several perspectives which will contribute to future research are proposed. This review provides insight into the sequestration and oxidation of heavy metals mediated by Mn(II) oxidizing microorganisms. It might be helpful to understand the geochemical fate of heavy metals in the aquatic environment and the process of microbial-mediated water self-purification.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yuheng Huang
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China
| | - Xiaoliu Huangfu
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China.
| | - Chengxue Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource, and Environment, School of Municipal, and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China
| | - Ziqiang Liu
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
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.
Collapse
|
10
|
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.
Collapse
|
11
|
Spinks SC, Sperling EA, Thorne RL, LaFountain F, White AJR, Armstrong J, Woltering M, Tyler IM. Mesoproterozoic surface oxygenation accompanied major sedimentary manganese deposition at 1.4 and 1.1 Ga. GEOBIOLOGY 2023; 21:28-43. [PMID: 36168296 PMCID: PMC10087800 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Manganese (Mn) oxidation in marine environments requires oxygen (O2 ) or other reactive oxygen species in the water column, and widespread Mn oxide deposition in ancient sedimentary rocks has long been used as a proxy for oxidation. The oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere and oceans across the Archean-Proterozoic boundary are associated with massive Mn deposits, whereas the interval from 1.8-1.0 Ga is generally believed to be a time of low atmospheric oxygen with an apparent hiatus in sedimentary Mn deposition. Here, we report geochemical and mineralogical analyses from 1.1 Ga manganiferous marine-shelf siltstones from the Bangemall Supergroup, Western Australia, which underlie recently discovered economically significant manganese deposits. Layers bearing Mn carbonate microspheres, comparable with major global Mn deposits, reveal that intense periods of sedimentary Mn deposition occurred in the late Mesoproterozoic. Iron geochemical data suggest anoxic-ferruginous seafloor conditions at the onset of Mn deposition, followed by oxic conditions in the water column as Mn deposition persisted and eventually ceased. These data imply there was spatially widespread surface oxygenation ~1.1 Ga with sufficiently oxic conditions in shelf environments to oxidize marine Mn(II). Comparable large stratiform Mn carbonate deposits also occur in ~1.4 Ga marine siltstones hosted in underlying sedimentary units. These deposits are greater or at least commensurate in scale (tonnage) to those that followed the major oxygenation transitions from the Neoproterozoic. Such a period of sedimentary manganogenesis is inconsistent with a model of persistently low O2 throughout the entirety of the Mesoproterozoic and provides robust evidence for dynamic redox changes in the mid to late Mesoproterozoic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sam C. Spinks
- CSIRO Mineral ResourcesAustralian Resources Research CentreKensingtonWestern AustraliaAustralia
| | - Erik A. Sperling
- Department of Geological SciencesStanford UniversityStanfordCaliforniaUSA
| | - Robert L. Thorne
- CSIRO Mineral ResourcesAustralian Resources Research CentreKensingtonWestern AustraliaAustralia
| | - Felicity LaFountain
- CSIRO Mineral ResourcesAustralian Resources Research CentreKensingtonWestern AustraliaAustralia
- School of Earth and Planetary SciencesThe Institute of Geoscience Research, Curtin UniversityPerthWestern AustraliaAustralia
| | - Alistair J. R. White
- CSIRO Mineral ResourcesAustralian Resources Research CentreKensingtonWestern AustraliaAustralia
| | - Joseph Armstrong
- CSIRO Mineral ResourcesAustralian Resources Research CentreKensingtonWestern AustraliaAustralia
- School of GeosciencesUniversity of AberdeenAberdeenScotland
| | - Martijn Woltering
- CSIRO Mineral ResourcesAustralian Resources Research CentreKensingtonWestern AustraliaAustralia
| | - Ian M. Tyler
- CSIRO Mineral ResourcesAustralian Resources Research CentreKensingtonWestern AustraliaAustralia
- Centre for Exploration Targeting, School of Earth SciencesUniversity of Western AustraliaPerthWestern AustraliaAustralia
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Zhu HZ, Jiang CY, Liu SJ. Microbial roles in cave biogeochemical cycling. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:950005. [PMID: 36246268 PMCID: PMC9554484 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.950005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Among fundamental research questions in subterranean biology, the role of subterranean microbiomes playing in key elements cycling is a top-priority one. Karst caves are widely distributed subsurface ecosystems, and cave microbes get more and more attention as they could drive cave evolution and biogeochemical cycling. Research have demonstrated the existence of diverse microbes and their participance in biogeochemical cycling of elements in cave environments. However, there are still gaps in how these microbes sustain in caves with limited nutrients and interact with cave environment. Cultivation of novel cave bacteria with certain functions is still a challenging assignment. This review summarized the role of microbes in cave evolution and mineral deposition, and intended to inspire further exploration of microbial performances on C/N/S biogeocycles.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hai-Zhen Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources and Environmental Microbiology Research Center, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Cheng-Ying Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources and Environmental Microbiology Research Center, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Shuang-Jiang Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources and Environmental Microbiology Research Center, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao, China
- *Correspondence: Shuang-Jiang Liu,
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Competitive interaction of Mn(II) and Fe(II) cations with the high-affinity Mn-binding site of the photosystem II: evolutionary aspect. ORIGINS LIFE EVOL B 2022; 52:113-128. [PMID: 35796895 DOI: 10.1007/s11084-022-09625-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/16/2022] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
The evolutionary origin of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) in the photosystem II (PSII) is still unclear, as is the nature of electron source for the photosystem before the OEC had appeared. Johnson et al. (in PNAS 110:11238, 2013) speculated that Mn(II) cations were the source of electrons for transitional photosystems. However, Archean oceans also contained Fe(II) cations at concentrations comparable or higher than that of Mn(II). Fe(II) cations can bind to the high-affinity (НА) Mn-binding site in the OEC (Semin et al. in Biochemistry 41:5854, 2002). Now we have investigated the competitive interaction of Mn(II) and Fe(II) cations with the HA site in the Mn-depleted PSII membranes (PSII[-Mn]). Fe cations, oxidized under illumination, bind strongly to the HA site and, thus, prevent the interaction of Mn(II) with this site. If the Mn(II) and Fe(II) cations, at relatively equal concentration, are simultaneously present in the buffer, together with PSII(-Mn) membranes, there is competition between these two cations for the binding site, which manifests itself in partial inhibition of the Mn(II) oxidation and the blocking of the HA site by Fe(II) cations. If the concentration of Fe(II) cations is several times higher than the concentration of Mn(II), the HA site is completely blocked and the oxidation of Mn(II) cations is inhibited; under saturating light, the effectiveness of this inhibitory effect increases. This may be due to the generation of H2O2 on the acceptor side of the photosystem, which significantly accelerates the rate of the turnover reaction of Mn(II) on the HA site.
Collapse
|
14
|
Dong H, Huang L, Zhao L, Zeng Q, Liu X, Sheng Y, Shi L, Wu G, Jiang H, Li F, Zhang L, Guo D, Li G, Hou W, Chen H. A critical review of mineral-microbe interaction and coevolution: mechanisms and applications. Natl Sci Rev 2022; 9:nwac128. [PMID: 36196117 PMCID: PMC9522408 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwac128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2022] [Revised: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
The mineral-microbe interactions play important roles in environmental change, biogeochemical cycling of elements, and formation of ore deposits. Minerals provide both beneficial (physical and chemical protection, nutrients, and energy) and detrimental (toxic substances and oxidative pressure) effects to microbes, resulting in mineral-specific microbial colonization. Microbes impact dissolution, transformation, and precipitation of minerals through their activity, resulting in either genetically-controlled or metabolism-induced biomineralization. Through these interactions minerals and microbes coevolve through Earth history. The mineral-microbe interactions typically occur at microscopic scale but the effect is often manifested at global scale. Despite advances achieved through decades of research, major questions remain. Four areas are identified for future research: integrating mineral and microbial ecology, establishing mineral biosignatures, linking laboratory mechanistic investigation to field observation, and manipulating mineral-microbe interactions for the benefit of humankind.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hailiang Dong
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| | - Liuqin Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Wuhan 430074 , China
| | - Linduo Zhao
- Illinois Sustainable Technology Center , Illinois State Water Survey, , Champaign , IL 61820 , USA
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Illinois State Water Survey, , Champaign , IL 61820 , USA
| | - Qiang Zeng
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| | - Xiaolei Liu
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| | - Yizhi Sheng
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| | - Liang Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Wuhan 430074 , China
| | - Geng Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Wuhan 430074 , China
| | - Hongchen Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Wuhan 430074 , China
| | - Fangru Li
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| | - Li Zhang
- Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science, Miami University , Oxford , OH 45056 , USA
| | - Dongyi Guo
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| | - Gaoyuan Li
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| | - Weiguo Hou
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| | - Hongyu Chen
- Center for Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry Research, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences , Beijing 100083 , China
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Spietz RL, Payne D, Kulkarni G, Metcalf WW, Roden EE, Boyd ES. Investigating Abiotic and Biotic Mechanisms of Pyrite Reduction. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:878387. [PMID: 35615515 PMCID: PMC9124975 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.878387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Pyrite (FeS2) has a very low solubility and therefore has historically been considered a sink for iron (Fe) and sulfur (S) and unavailable to biology in the absence of oxygen and oxidative weathering. Anaerobic methanogens were recently shown to reduce FeS2 and assimilate Fe and S reduction products to meet nutrient demands. However, the mechanism of FeS2 mineral reduction and the forms of Fe and S assimilated by methanogens remained unclear. Thermodynamic calculations described herein indicate that H2 at aqueous concentrations as low as 10-10 M favors the reduction of FeS2, with sulfide (HS-) and pyrrhotite (Fe1- x S) as products; abiotic laboratory experiments confirmed the reduction of FeS2 with dissolved H2 concentrations greater than 1.98 × 10-4 M H2. Growth studies of Methanosarcina barkeri provided with FeS2 as the sole source of Fe and S resulted in H2 production but at concentrations too low to drive abiotic FeS2 reduction, based on abiotic laboratory experimental data. A strain of M. barkeri with deletions in all [NiFe]-hydrogenases maintained the ability to reduce FeS2 during growth, providing further evidence that extracellular electron transport (EET) to FeS2 does not involve H2 or [NiFe]-hydrogenases. Physical contact between cells and FeS2 was required for mineral reduction but was not required to obtain Fe and S from dissolution products. The addition of a synthetic electron shuttle, anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate, allowed for biological reduction of FeS2 when physical contact between cells and FeS2 was prohibited, indicating that exogenous electron shuttles can mediate FeS2 reduction. Transcriptomics experiments revealed upregulation of several cytoplasmic oxidoreductases during growth of M. barkeri on FeS2, which may indicate involvement in provisioning low potential electrons for EET to FeS2. Collectively, the data presented herein indicate that reduction of insoluble FeS2 by M. barkeri occurred via electron transfer from the cell surface to the mineral surface resulting in the generation of soluble HS- and mineral-associated Fe1- x S. Solubilized Fe(II), but not HS-, from mineral-associated Fe1- x S reacts with aqueous HS- yielding aqueous iron sulfur clusters (FeS aq ) that likely serve as the Fe and S source for methanogen growth and activity. FeS aq nucleation and subsequent precipitation on the surface of cells may result in accelerated EET to FeS2, resulting in positive feedback between cell activity and FeS2 reduction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rachel L. Spietz
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States
| | - Devon Payne
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States
| | - Gargi Kulkarni
- Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
| | - William W. Metcalf
- Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
| | - Eric E. Roden
- Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Eric S. Boyd
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, United States
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Oliver N, Avramov AP, Nürnberg DJ, Dau H, Burnap RL. From manganese oxidation to water oxidation: assembly and evolution of the water-splitting complex in photosystem II. PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESEARCH 2022; 152:107-133. [PMID: 35397059 DOI: 10.1007/s11120-022-00912-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The manganese cluster of photosystem II has been the focus of intense research aiming to understand the mechanism of H2O-oxidation. Great effort has also been applied to investigating its oxidative photoassembly process, termed photoactivation that involves the light-driven incorporation of metal ions into the active Mn4CaO5 cluster. The knowledge gained on these topics has fundamental scientific significance, but may also provide the blueprints for the development of biomimetic devices capable of splitting water for solar energy applications. Accordingly, synthetic chemical approaches inspired by the native Mn cluster are actively being explored, for which the native catalyst is a useful benchmark. For both the natural and artificial catalysts, the assembly process of incorporating Mn ions into catalytically active Mn oxide complexes is an oxidative process. In both cases this process appears to share certain chemical features, such as producing an optimal fraction of open coordination sites on the metals to facilitate the binding of substrate water, as well as the involvement of alkali metals (e.g., Ca2+) to facilitate assembly and activate water-splitting catalysis. This review discusses the structure and formation of the metal cluster of the PSII H2O-oxidizing complex in the context of what is known about the formation and chemical properties of different Mn oxides. Additionally, the evolutionary origin of the Mn4CaO5 is considered in light of hypotheses that soluble Mn2+ was an ancient source of reductant for some early photosynthetic reaction centers ('photomanganotrophy'), and recent evidence that PSII can form Mn oxides with structural resemblance to the geologically abundant birnessite class of minerals. A new functional role for Ca2+ to facilitate sustained Mn2+ oxidation during photomanganotrophy is proposed, which may explain proposed physiological intermediates during the likely evolutionary transition from anoxygenic to oxygenic photosynthesis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas Oliver
- Physics Department, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - Anton P Avramov
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA
| | - Dennis J Nürnberg
- Physics Department, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - Holger Dau
- Physics Department, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, 14195, Berlin, Germany
| | - Robert L Burnap
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Bulk and grain-scale minor sulfur isotope data reveal complexities in the dynamics of Earth's oxygenation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2025606119. [PMID: 35312361 PMCID: PMC9060445 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2025606119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The permanent disappearance of mass-independent sulfur isotope fractionation (S-MIF) from the sedimentary record has become a widely accepted proxy for atmospheric oxygenation. This framework, however, neglects inheritance from oxidative weathering of pre-existing S-MIF–bearing sedimentary sulfide minerals (i.e., crustal memory), which has recently been invoked to explain apparent discrepancies within the sulfur isotope record. Herein, we demonstrate that such a crustal memory effect does not confound the Carletonville S-isotope record; rather, the pronounced Δ33S values identified within the Rooihoogte Formation represent the youngest known unequivocal oxygen-free photochemical products. Previously observed 33S-enrichments within the succeeding Timeball Hill Formation, however, contrasts with our record, revealing kilometer-scale heterogeneities that highlight significant uncertainties in our understanding of the dynamics of Earth’s oxygenation. The disappearance of mass-independent sulfur isotope fractionation (S-MIF) within the c. 2.3-billion-year-old (Ga) Rooihoogte Formation has been heralded as a chemostratigraphic marker of permanent atmospheric oxygenation. Reports of younger S-MIF, however, question this narrative, leaving significant uncertainties surrounding the timing, tempo, and trajectory of Earth’s oxygenation. Leveraging a new bulk quadruple S-isotope record, we return to the South African Transvaal Basin in search of support for supposed oscillations in atmospheric oxygen beyond 2.3 Ga. Here, as expected, within the Rooihoogte Formation, our data capture a collapse in Δ3×S values and a shift from Archean-like Δ36S/Δ33S slopes to their mass-dependent counterparts. Importantly, the interrogation of a Δ33S-exotic grain reveals extreme spatial variability, whereby atypically large Δ33S values are separated from more typical Paleoproterozoic values by a subtle grain-housed siderophile-enriched band. This isotopic juxtaposition signals the coexistence of two sulfur pools that were able to escape diagenetic homogenization. These large Δ33S values require an active photochemical sulfur source, fingerprinting atmospheric S-MIF production after its documented cessation elsewhere at ∼2.4 Ga. By contrast, the Δ33S monotony observed in overlying Timeball Hill Formation, with muted Δ33S values (<0.3‰) and predominantly mass-dependent Δ36S/Δ33S systematics, remains in stark contrast to recent reports of pronounced S-MIF within proximal formational equivalents. If reflective of atmospheric processes, these observed kilometer-scale discrepancies disclose heterogenous S-MIF delivery to the Transvaal Basin and/or poorly resolved fleeting returns to S-MIF production. Rigorous bulk and grain-scale analytical campaigns remain paramount to refine our understanding of Earth’s oxygenation and substantiate claims of post-2.3 Ga oscillations in atmospheric oxygen.
Collapse
|
18
|
Evidence for the oxidation of Earth's crust from the evolution of manganese minerals. Nat Commun 2022; 13:960. [PMID: 35181670 PMCID: PMC8857192 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28589-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2017] [Accepted: 01/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Analysis of manganese mineral occurrences and valence states demonstrate oxidation of Earth's crust through time. Changes in crustal redox state are critical to Earth's evolution, but few methods exist for evaluating spatially averaged crustal redox state through time. Manganese (Mn) is a redox-sensitive metal whose variable oxidation states and abundance in crustal minerals make it a useful tracer of crustal oxidation. We find that the average oxidation state of crustal Mn occurrences has risen in the last 1 billion years in response to atmospheric oxygenation following a 66 ± 1 million-year time lag. We interpret this lag as the average time necessary to equilibrate the shallow crust to atmospheric oxygen fugacity. This study employs large mineralogical databases to evaluate geochemical conditions through Earth's history, and we propose that this and other mineral data sets form an important class of proxies that constrain the evolving redox state of various Earth reservoirs.
Collapse
|
19
|
Slotznick SP, Johnson JE, Rasmussen B, Raub TD, Webb SM, Zi JW, Kirschvink JL, Fischer WW. Reexamination of 2.5-Ga "whiff" of oxygen interval points to anoxic ocean before GOE. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabj7190. [PMID: 34985950 PMCID: PMC8730617 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj7190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 11/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Transient appearances of oxygen have been inferred before the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) [∼2.3 billion years (Ga) ago] based on redox-sensitive elements such as Mo and S—most prominently from the ∼2.5-Ga Mount McRae Shale in Western Australia. We present new spatially resolved data including synchrotron-based x-ray spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry to characterize the petrogenesis of the Mount McRae Shale. Sediments were primarily composed of organic matter and volcanic ash (a potential source of Mo), with U-Pb ages revealing extremely low sedimentation rates. Catagenesis created bedding-parallel microfractures, which subsequently acted as fluid pathways for metasomatic alteration and recent oxidative weathering. Our collective observations suggest that the bulk chemical datasets pointing toward a “whiff” of oxygen developed during postdepositional events. Nonzero Δ33S in trace-metal–poor, early diagenetic pyrite and the unusually enriched organic carbon at low sedimentation rates instead suggest that environmental oxygen levels were negligible ∼150 million years before the GOE.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Jena E. Johnson
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, USA
| | - Birger Rasmussen
- School of Earth Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
- State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China
| | - Timothy D. Raub
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AL, Scotland, UK
- Geoheritage Research Institute, Arlington Heights, IL 60005, USA
| | - Samuel M. Webb
- Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
| | - Jian-Wei Zi
- State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China
| | - Joseph L. Kirschvink
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
| | - Woodward W. Fischer
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Abstract
The large-scale dynamics of ocean oxygenation have changed dramatically throughout Earth's history, in step with major changes in the abundance of O2 in the atmosphere and changes to marine nutrient availability. A comprehensive mechanistic understanding of this history requires insights from oceanography, marine geology, geochemistry, geomicrobiology, evolutionary ecology, and Earth system modeling. Here, we attempt to synthesize the major features of evolving ocean oxygenation on Earth through more than 3 billion years of planetary history. We review the fundamental first-order controls on ocean oxygen distribution and summarize the current understanding of the history of ocean oxygenation on Earth from empirical and theoretical perspectives-integrating geochemical reconstructions of oceanic and atmospheric chemistry, genomic constraints on evolving microbial metabolism, and mechanistic biogeochemical models. These changes are used to illustrate primary regimes of large-scale ocean oxygenation and to highlight feedbacks that can act to stabilize and destabilize the ocean-atmosphere system in anoxic, low-oxygen, and high-oxygen states.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christopher T Reinhard
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA;
- Alternative Earths Team, Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Riverside, California 92521, USA
- Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC 20546, USA
| | - Noah J Planavsky
- Alternative Earths Team, Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Riverside, California 92521, USA
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
He H, Wu X, Xian H, Zhu J, Yang Y, Lv Y, Li Y, Konhauser KO. An abiotic source of Archean hydrogen peroxide and oxygen that pre-dates oxygenic photosynthesis. Nat Commun 2021; 12:6611. [PMID: 34785682 PMCID: PMC8595356 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26916-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis is a pivotal event in Earth's history because the O2 released fundamentally changed the planet's redox state and facilitated the emergence of multicellular life. An intriguing hypothesis proposes that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) once acted as the electron donor prior to the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, but its abundance during the Archean would have been limited. Here, we report a previously unrecognized abiotic pathway for Archean H2O2 production that involves the abrasion of quartz surfaces and the subsequent generation of surface-bound radicals that can efficiently oxidize H2O to H2O2 and O2. We propose that in turbulent subaqueous environments, such as rivers, estuaries and deltas, this process could have provided a sufficient H2O2 source that led to the generation of biogenic O2, creating an evolutionary impetus for the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hongping He
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640, Guangzhou, China.
- CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, 510640, Guangzhou, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China.
| | - Xiao Wu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China
| | - Haiyang Xian
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, 510640, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jianxi Zhu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China
| | - Yiping Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China
| | - Ying Lv
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, 510640, Guangzhou, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China
| | - Yiliang Li
- Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong, China.
| | - Kurt O Konhauser
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E3, Canada.
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Rai R, Singh S, Rai KK, Raj A, Sriwastaw S, Rai LC. Regulation of antioxidant defense and glyoxalase systems in cyanobacteria. PLANT PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY : PPB 2021; 168:353-372. [PMID: 34700048 DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2021.09.037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2021] [Revised: 09/09/2021] [Accepted: 09/28/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Oxidative stress is common consequence of abiotic stress in plants as well as cyanobacteria caused by generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), an inevitable product of respiration and photosynthetic electron transport. ROS act as signalling molecule at low concentration however, when its production exceeds the endurance capacity of antioxidative defence system, the organisms suffer oxidative stress. A highly toxic metabolite, methylglyoxal (MG) is also produced in cyanobacteria in response to various abiotic stresses which consequently augment the ensuing oxidative damage. Taking recourse to the common lineage of eukaryotic plants and cyanobacteria, it would be worthwhile to explore the regulatory role of glyoxalase system and antioxidative defense mechanism in combating abiotic stress in cyanobacteria. This review provides comprehensive information on the complete glyoxalase system (GlyI, GlyII and GlyIII) in cyanobacteria. Furthermore, it elucidates the recent understanding regarding the production of ROS and MG, noteworthy link between intracellular MG and ROS and its detoxification via synchronization of antioxidants (enzymatic and non-enzymatic) and glyoxalase systems using glutathione (GSH) as common co-factor.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ruchi Rai
- Molecular Biology Section, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India
| | - Shilpi Singh
- Molecular Biology Section, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India
| | - Krishna Kumar Rai
- Molecular Biology Section, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India
| | - Alka Raj
- Molecular Biology Section, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India
| | - Sonam Sriwastaw
- Molecular Biology Section, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India
| | - L C Rai
- Molecular Biology Section, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India.
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Wang Q, Wei H, Liu W, Zhai J. Carbamazepine removal by the synergistic effect of manganese-oxidizing microalgae and biogenic manganese oxides. JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS 2021; 419:126530. [PMID: 34323713 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Forty strains of Mn-oxidizing microalgae (MnOMs) with different Mn2+ oxidation mechanisms were identified from two aquatic environments. Among them, three strains of isolates (Chlamydomonas sp. WH1-1, Chlamydomonas sp. WH1-4, and Chlorella sp. WH2-5) oxidize Mn2+ by increasing the ambient pH and by secreting Mn oxidation factors (e.g., superoxide-production enzymes and/or other Mn oxidases) into the extracellular environment at the same time. In carbamazepine (CBZ) removal by MnOMs and/or Bio-MnOx, the combination of MnOMs and Bio-MnOx significantly increased the CBZ (1 mg/L) removal efficiency from 36.05% (by MnOMs alone) and 20.11% (by Bio-MnOx alone) to 80.13% by two synergistic mechanisms. One of the synergistic mechanisms was confirmed as that the Mn2+ was re-oxidized by MnOMs to Bio-MnOx, which can promote the CBZ removal, and another was the mutual exchange of degradation products of CBZ as shared reactants between MnOMs and Bio-MnOx. The degradation intermediates of CBZ were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, based on which the CBZ degradation pathway by MnOMs and Bio-MnOx was proposed. These findings expand existing knowledge on the Mn2+ oxidation mechanisms of MnOMs, and indicate that MnOMs and their generated Bio-MnOx are promising for the removal of CBZ or other pharmaceutical contaminants from wastewater.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Quanfeng Wang
- College of Environment and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, PR China.
| | - Haoxuan Wei
- College of Environment and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, PR China.
| | - Wenbo Liu
- College of Environment and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, PR China.
| | - Jun Zhai
- College of Environment and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, PR China.
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Ishida K, Tsukamoto Y, Horitani M, Ogawa T, Tanaka Y. Biochemical properties of CumA multicopper oxidase from plant pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 2021; 85:1995-2002. [PMID: 34244699 DOI: 10.1093/bbb/zbab123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Multicopper oxidases have a wide range of substrate specificity to be involved in various physiological reactions. Pseudomonas syringae, a plant pathogenic bacterium, has a multicopper oxidase, CumA. Multicopper oxidases have ability to degrade plant cell wall component, lignin. Once P. syringae enter apoplast and colonize, they start to disrupt plant immunity. Therefore, deeper understanding of multicopper oxidases from plant pathogens, help to invent measures to prevent invasion into plant cell, which bring agricultural benefits. Several biochemical studies have reported lower activity of CumA compared with other multicopper oxidase called CotA. However, the mechanisms underlying the difference in activity have not yet been revealed. In order to acquire insight into them, we conducted a biophysical characterization of PsCumA. Our results show that PsCumA has weak type I copper EPR signal, which is essential for oxidation activity. We propose that difference in the coordination of copper ions may decrease reaction frequency.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Konan Ishida
- Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan.,Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1QE, UK
| | - Yuya Tsukamoto
- Department of Earth Science, Graduate school of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan.,Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Chiba, 277-8564, Japan
| | - Masaki Horitani
- Department of Applied Biochemistry and Food Science, Saga University, Honjo-machi, 840-8502, Japan
| | - Tomohisa Ogawa
- Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan.,Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Chiba, 277-8564, Japan
| | - Yoshikazu Tanaka
- Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Oliver T, Sánchez-Baracaldo P, Larkum AW, Rutherford AW, Cardona T. Time-resolved comparative molecular evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA. BIOENERGETICS 2021; 1862:148400. [PMID: 33617856 PMCID: PMC8047818 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2021.148400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2020] [Revised: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 02/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Oxygenic photosynthesis starts with the oxidation of water to O2, a light-driven reaction catalysed by photosystem II. Cyanobacteria are the only prokaryotes capable of water oxidation and therefore, it is assumed that the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis is a late innovation relative to the origin of life and bioenergetics. However, when exactly water oxidation originated remains an unanswered question. Here we use phylogenetic analysis to study a gene duplication event that is unique to photosystem II: the duplication that led to the evolution of the core antenna subunits CP43 and CP47. We compare the changes in the rates of evolution of this duplication with those of some of the oldest well-described events in the history of life: namely, the duplication leading to the Alpha and Beta subunits of the catalytic head of ATP synthase, and the divergence of archaeal and bacterial RNA polymerases and ribosomes. We also compare it with more recent events such as the duplication of Cyanobacteria-specific FtsH metalloprotease subunits and the radiation leading to Margulisbacteria, Sericytochromatia, Vampirovibrionia, and other clades containing anoxygenic phototrophs. We demonstrate that the ancestral core duplication of photosystem II exhibits patterns in the rates of protein evolution through geological time that are nearly identical to those of the ATP synthase, RNA polymerase, or the ribosome. Furthermore, we use ancestral sequence reconstruction in combination with comparative structural biology of photosystem subunits, to provide additional evidence supporting the premise that water oxidation had originated before the ancestral core duplications. Our work suggests that photosynthetic water oxidation originated closer to the origin of life and bioenergetics than can be documented based on phylogenetic or phylogenomic species trees alone.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Oliver
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | | | | | | | - Tanai Cardona
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Chen MA, Kocar BD. Development of a novel microfluidic device to study metal geochemistry in situ using X-ray fluorescence microprobe spectroscopy. JOURNAL OF SYNCHROTRON RADIATION 2021; 28:461-471. [PMID: 33650558 DOI: 10.1107/s1600577520016239] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2020] [Accepted: 12/14/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The study of in situ microscale biogeochemical processes represents a major challenge in the environmental sciences. The combination of microfluidic devices with X-ray fluorescence microprobe spectroscopy may address this need, but typical materials used in these devices attenuate the X-rays needed to analyze key elements of interest, such as Fe or As. In this work, a method is presented for fabricating an etched silicon microfluidic device that is sealed with a 30 µm thin glass window that is sufficiently transparent for X-ray fluorescence microprobe spectroscopy. The capabilities of these devices for X-ray microprobe spectroscopy are demonstrated using an Fe (hydr)oxide solid that is loaded with As and then infused with sulfide, on beamline 4-BM at NSLS-II, resulting in time-variant Fe precipitation reactions and As sorption. Key results include in situ X-ray fluorescence time-series maps of Fe, As and a Br flow tracer, as well as spot XANES at both the Fe K edge and As K edge. Additionally, multiple energy mapping is used to examine the spatial speciation of As over time. The results of this work clearly demonstrate the capabilities of this novel microfluidic system that can be analyzed using X-ray fluorescence microprobe spectroscopy and can be made to study a wide range of complex microscale geochemical systems.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael A Chen
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Benjamin D Kocar
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Ward LM, Shih PM. Granick revisited: Synthesizing evolutionary and ecological evidence for the late origin of bacteriochlorophyll via ghost lineages and horizontal gene transfer. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0239248. [PMID: 33507911 PMCID: PMC7842958 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Accepted: 12/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Photosynthesis-both oxygenic and more ancient anoxygenic forms-has fueled the bulk of primary productivity on Earth since it first evolved more than 3.4 billion years ago. However, the early evolutionary history of photosynthesis has been challenging to interpret due to the sparse, scattered distribution of metabolic pathways associated with photosynthesis, long timescales of evolution, and poor sampling of the true environmental diversity of photosynthetic bacteria. Here, we reconsider longstanding hypotheses for the evolutionary history of phototrophy by leveraging recent advances in metagenomic sequencing and phylogenetics to analyze relationships among phototrophic organisms and components of their photosynthesis pathways, including reaction centers and individual proteins and complexes involved in the multi-step synthesis of (bacterio)-chlorophyll pigments. We demonstrate that components of the photosynthetic apparatus have undergone extensive, independent histories of horizontal gene transfer. This suggests an evolutionary mode by which modular components of phototrophy are exchanged between diverse taxa in a piecemeal process that has led to biochemical innovation. We hypothesize that the evolution of extant anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria has been spurred by ecological competition and restricted niches following the evolution of oxygenic Cyanobacteria and the accumulation of O2 in the atmosphere, leading to the relatively late evolution of bacteriochlorophyll pigments and the radiation of diverse crown group anoxygenic phototrophs. This hypothesis expands on the classic "Granick hypothesis" for the stepwise evolution of biochemical pathways, synthesizing recent expansion in our understanding of the diversity of phototrophic organisms as well as their evolving ecological context through Earth history.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lewis M. Ward
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Patrick M. Shih
- Department of Plant Biology, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- Feedstocks Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, United States of America
- Genome Center, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Light-driven formation of manganese oxide by today's photosystem II supports evolutionarily ancient manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis. Nat Commun 2020; 11:6110. [PMID: 33257675 PMCID: PMC7705724 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19852-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Water oxidation and concomitant dioxygen formation by the manganese-calcium cluster of oxygenic photosynthesis has shaped the biosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere. It has been hypothesized that at an early stage of evolution, before photosynthetic water oxidation became prominent, light-driven formation of manganese oxides from dissolved Mn(2+) ions may have played a key role in bioenergetics and possibly facilitated early geological manganese deposits. Here we report the biochemical evidence for the ability of photosystems to form extended manganese oxide particles. The photochemical redox processes in spinach photosystem-II particles devoid of the manganese-calcium cluster are tracked by visible-light and X-ray spectroscopy. Oxidation of dissolved manganese ions results in high-valent Mn(III,IV)-oxide nanoparticles of the birnessite type bound to photosystem II, with 50-100 manganese ions per photosystem. Having shown that even today’s photosystem II can form birnessite-type oxide particles efficiently, we propose an evolutionary scenario, which involves manganese-oxide production by ancestral photosystems, later followed by down-sizing of protein-bound manganese-oxide nanoparticles to finally yield today’s catalyst of photosynthetic water oxidation. Photosynthetic formation of manganese (Mn) oxides from dissolved Mn ions was proposed to occur in ancestral photosystems before oxygenic photosynthesis evolved. Here, the authors provide evidence for this hypothesis by showing that photosystem II devoid of the Mn cluster oxidises Mn ions leading to formation of Mn-oxide nanoparticles.
Collapse
|
29
|
|
30
|
Derr JB, Tamayo J, Clark JA, Morales M, Mayther MF, Espinoza EM, Rybicka-Jasińska K, Vullev VI. Multifaceted aspects of charge transfer. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2020; 22:21583-21629. [PMID: 32785306 PMCID: PMC7544685 DOI: 10.1039/d0cp01556c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Charge transfer and charge transport are by far among the most important processes for sustaining life on Earth and for making our modern ways of living possible. Involving multiple electron-transfer steps, photosynthesis and cellular respiration have been principally responsible for managing the energy flow in the biosphere of our planet since the Great Oxygen Event. It is impossible to imagine living organisms without charge transport mediated by ion channels, or electron and proton transfer mediated by redox enzymes. Concurrently, transfer and transport of electrons and holes drive the functionalities of electronic and photonic devices that are intricate for our lives. While fueling advances in engineering, charge-transfer science has established itself as an important independent field, originating from physical chemistry and chemical physics, focusing on paradigms from biology, and gaining momentum from solar-energy research. Here, we review the fundamental concepts of charge transfer, and outline its core role in a broad range of unrelated fields, such as medicine, environmental science, catalysis, electronics and photonics. The ubiquitous nature of dipoles, for example, sets demands on deepening the understanding of how localized electric fields affect charge transfer. Charge-transfer electrets, thus, prove important for advancing the field and for interfacing fundamental science with engineering. Synergy between the vastly different aspects of charge-transfer science sets the stage for the broad global impacts that the advances in this field have.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- James B Derr
- Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
31
|
Liu W, Hao J, Elzinga EJ, Piotrowiak P, Nanda V, Yee N, Falkowski PG. Anoxic photogeochemical oxidation of manganese carbonate yields manganese oxide. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:22698-22704. [PMID: 32868429 PMCID: PMC7502741 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2002175117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The oxidation states of manganese minerals in the geological record have been interpreted as proxies for the evolution of molecular oxygen in the Archean eon. Here we report that an Archean manganese mineral, rhodochrosite (MnCO3), can be photochemically oxidized by light under anoxic, abiotic conditions. Rhodochrosite has a calculated bandgap of about 5.4 eV, corresponding to light energy centering around 230 nm. Light at that wavelength would have been present on Earth's surface in the Archean, prior to the formation of stratospheric ozone. We show experimentally that the photooxidation of rhodochrosite in suspension with light centered at 230 nm produced H2 gas and manganite (γ-MnOOH) with an apparent quantum yield of 1.37 × 10-3 moles hydrogen per moles incident photons. Our results suggest that manganese oxides could have formed abiotically on the surface in shallow waters and on continents during the Archean eon in the absence of molecular oxygen.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Winnie Liu
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854
| | - Jihua Hao
- Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
| | - Evert J Elzinga
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University-Newark, Newark, NJ 07102
| | - Piotr Piotrowiak
- Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University-Newark, Newark, NJ 07102
| | - Vikas Nanda
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854
| | - Nathan Yee
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854
| | - Paul G Falkowski
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854;
- Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Terentyev VV, Zharmukhamedov SK. Evolutionary Loss of the Ability of the Photosystem I Primary Electron Donor for the Redox Interaction with Mn-Bicarbonate Complexes. BIOCHEMISTRY (MOSCOW) 2020; 85:697-708. [PMID: 32586233 DOI: 10.1134/s0006297920060073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
The structure and functional organization of the photosystem I (PSI) reaction center (RC) donor side has a significant similarity to the reaction centers of purple bacteria (bRCs), despite the fact that they belong to different types of RCs. Moreover, the redox potential values of their primary electron donors are identical (~0.5 V). In our earlier reports [Khorobrykh et al. (2008) Phylos. Trans. R. Soc. B., 363, 1245-1251; Terentyev et al. (2011) Biochemistry (Moscow), 76, 1360-1366; Khorobrykh et al. (2018) ChemBioChem, 14, 1725-1731], we have demonstrated redox interaction of low-potential Mn2+-bicarbonate complexes with bRCs, which might have been one of the first steps in the evolutionary origin of Mn-cluster of the photosystem II water-oxidizing complex that occurred in the Archean (over 3 billion years ago). In this study, we investigated redox interactions between Mn2+-bicarbonate complexes and PSI. Such interactions were almost absent in the original PSI preparations and emerged only in preoxidized PSI preparations containing ~50% oxidized RCs. The interaction between Mn2+-bicarbonate complexes and PSI required increased Mn2+ concentrations, while its dependence on the HCO3- concentration indicated involvement of electroneutral low-potential [Mn(HCO3)2] complex in the process. Analysis of the PSI crystal structure revealed steric hindrances on the RC donor side, which could block the redox interaction between Mn2+-bicarbonate complexes and oxidized primary electron donor. Comparison of structures of RCs from the PSI and ancient RCs from heliobacteria belonging to the same type of RCs suggested that such hindrances should be absent in the primitive PSI in the Archean and allowed to explain their evolutionary origin as a consequence of PSI RCs into the united electron transport chain (ETC) of the photosynthetic membrane that was accompanied by the evolutionary loss of PSI capacity for the redox interaction with Mn2+-bicarbonate complexes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- V V Terentyev
- Institute of Basic Biological Problems, Pushchino Scientific Center for Biological Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142290, Russia.
| | - S K Zharmukhamedov
- Institute of Basic Biological Problems, Pushchino Scientific Center for Biological Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142290, Russia
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Espiritu E, Chamberlain KD, Williams JC, Allen JP. Bound manganese oxides capable of reducing the bacteriochlorophyll dimer of modified reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESEARCH 2020; 143:129-141. [PMID: 31641987 DOI: 10.1007/s11120-019-00680-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2019] [Accepted: 10/09/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
A biohybrid model system is described that interfaces synthetic Mn-oxides with bacterial reaction centers to gain knowledge concerning redox reactions by metal clusters in proteins, in particular the Mn4CaO5 cluster of photosystem II. The ability of Mn-oxides to bind to modified bacterial reaction centers and transfer an electron to the light-induced oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer, P+, was characterized using optical spectroscopy. The environment of P was altered to obtain a high P/P+ midpoint potential. In addition, different metal-binding sites were introduced by substitution of amino acid residues as well as extension of the C-terminus of the M subunit with the C-terminal region of the D1 subunit of photosystem II. The Mn-compounds MnO2, αMn2O3, Mn3O4, CaMn2O4, and Mn3(PO4)2 were tested and compared to MnCl2. In general, addition of the Mn-compounds resulted in a decrease in the amount of P+ while the reduced quinone was still present, demonstrating that the Mn-compounds can serve as secondary electron donors. The extent of P+ reduction for the Mn-oxides was largest for αMn2O3 and CaMn2O4 and smallest for Mn3O4 and MnO2. The addition of Mn3(PO4)2 resulted in nearly complete P+ reduction, similar to MnCl2. Overall, the activity was correlated with the initial oxidation state of the Mn-compound. Transient optical measurements showed a fast kinetic component, assigned to reduction of P+ by the Mn-oxide, in addition to a slow component due to charge recombination. The results support the conjecture that the incorporation of Mn-oxides by ancient anoxygenic phototrophs was a step in the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eduardo Espiritu
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA
| | - Kori D Chamberlain
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA
| | - JoAnn C Williams
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA
| | - James P Allen
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Jung H, Taillefert M, Sun J, Wang Q, Borkiewicz OJ, Liu P, Yang L, Chen S, Chen H, Tang Y. Redox Cycling Driven Transformation of Layered Manganese Oxides to Tunnel Structures. J Am Chem Soc 2020; 142:2506-2513. [PMID: 31913621 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b12266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Mn oxides are among the most ubiquitous minerals on Earth and play critical roles in numerous elemental cycles in biotic/abiotic loops as the key redox center. Yet, it has long puzzled geochemists why the laboratory synthesis of todorokite, a tunnel-structured Mn oxide, is extremely difficult while it is the dominant form over other tunneled phases in low-temperature natural environments. This study employs a novel electrochemical method to mimic the cyclic redox reactions occurring over long geological time scales in an accelerated manner. The results revealed that the kinetics and electron flux of the cyclic redox reaction are key to the layer-to-tunnel structure transformation of Mn oxides, provided new insights for natural biotic and abiotic redox reactions, and explained the dominance of todorokite in nature.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jingying Sun
- Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity , University of Houston , Houston , Texas 77204 , United States
| | | | - Olaf J Borkiewicz
- Advanced Photon Source , Argonne National Laboratory , Argonne , Illinois 60439 , United States
| | | | | | - Shuo Chen
- Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity , University of Houston , Houston , Texas 77204 , United States
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
35
|
Light-driven anaerobic microbial oxidation of manganese. Nature 2019; 576:311-314. [PMID: 31802001 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1804-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2018] [Accepted: 10/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Oxygenic photosynthesis supplies organic carbon to the modern biosphere, but it is uncertain when this metabolism originated. It has previously been proposed1,2 that photosynthetic reaction centres capable of splitting water arose by about 3 billion years ago on the basis of the inferred presence of manganese oxides in Archaean sedimentary rocks. However, this assumes that manganese oxides can be produced only in the presence of molecular oxygen3, reactive oxygen species4,5 or by high-potential photosynthetic reaction centres6,7. Here we show that communities of anoxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms biomineralize manganese oxides in the absence of molecular oxygen and high-potential photosynthetic reaction centres. Microbial oxidation of Mn(II) under strictly anaerobic conditions during the Archaean eon would have produced geochemical signals identical to those used to date the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis before the Great Oxidation Event1,2. This light-dependent process may also produce manganese oxides in the photic zones of modern anoxic water bodies and sediments.
Collapse
|
36
|
Mn oxide formation by phototrophs: Spatial and temporal patterns, with evidence of an enzymatic superoxide-mediated pathway. Sci Rep 2019; 9:18244. [PMID: 31796791 PMCID: PMC6890756 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54403-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2018] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Manganese (Mn) oxide minerals influence the availability of organic carbon, nutrients and metals in the environment. Oxidation of Mn(II) to Mn(III/IV) oxides is largely promoted by the direct and indirect activity of microorganisms. Studies of biogenic Mn(II) oxidation have focused on bacteria and fungi, with phototrophic organisms (phototrophs) being generally overlooked. Here, we isolated phototrophs from Mn removal beds in Pennsylvania, USA, including fourteen Chlorophyta (green algae), three Bacillariophyta (diatoms) and one cyanobacterium, all of which consistently formed Mn(III/IV) oxides. Isolates produced cell-specific oxides (coating some cells but not others), diffuse biofilm oxides, and internal diatom-specific Mn-rich nodules. Phototrophic Mn(II) oxidation had been previously attributed to abiotic oxidation mediated by photosynthesis-driven pH increases, but we found a decoupling of Mn oxide formation and pH alteration in several cases. Furthermore, cell-free filtrates of some isolates produced Mn oxides at specific time points, but this activity was not induced by Mn(II). Manganese oxide formation in cell-free filtrates occurred via reaction with the oxygen radical superoxide produced by soluble extracellular proteins. Given the known widespread ability of phototrophs to produce superoxide, the contribution of phototrophs to Mn(II) oxidation in the environment may be greater and more nuanced than previously thought.
Collapse
|
37
|
Pan F, Liu H, Guo Z, Cai Y, Fu Y, Wu J, Wang B, Gao A. Metal/metalloid and phosphorus characteristics in porewater associated with manganese geochemistry: A case study in the Jiulong River Estuary, China. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2019; 255:113134. [PMID: 31520910 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2019] [Revised: 08/17/2019] [Accepted: 08/28/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Sediment porewater can be an important source of contaminants in the overlying water, but the mechanisms of metal(loid) and phosphorus (P) remobilization remain to be investigated. In this study, high-resolution dialysis (HR-Peeper) and diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) samplers were used to determine the porewater dissolved iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), vanadium (V), selenium (Se), arsenic (As), P and DGT-Labile S in coastal sediments in the Jiulong River Estuary (JRE), China. The results showed that high concentrations of dissolved Mn, Se and P were present in the overlying water, indicating potential water pollution with excessive amounts of Mn, Se and P. The dissolved Mn concentrations in the porewater were higher than the dissolved Fe concentrations, especially at submerged sites, demonstrating that Mn(III/IV) reduction is the dominant diagenetic pathway for organic carbon (OC) degradation, which directly affects Fe cycling by the competitive inhibition of Fe(III) reduction and Fe(II) reoxidation. Dissolved Co, Cr, V, Se, As and P show significant positive correlations with Mn but nearly no correlations with Fe, suggesting that the mobility of these metal(loid)s and P is associated with Mn but not Fe cycling in this region. In addition, the coelevated concentrations of the metal(loid)s, P and Mn at the submerged sites are attributed to the strengthened Mn reduction coupled with OC degradation fueled by hypoxia. The higher positive diffusion fluxes of Mn, Se and P were consistent with the excess Mn, Se and P concentrations in the overlying water, together with the approximately positive fluxes of the other metal(loid)s, indicating that sediment Mn(III/IV) reduction and concomitant metal(loid) and P remobilization might be vital pathways for metal(loid) and P migration to the overlying water.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Feng Pan
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China
| | - Huatai Liu
- College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China.
| | - Zhanrong Guo
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China
| | - Yu Cai
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China
| | - Yuyao Fu
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China
| | - Jinye Wu
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China
| | - Bo Wang
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China
| | - Aiguo Gao
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Onstott T, Ehlmann B, Sapers H, Coleman M, Ivarsson M, Marlow J, Neubeck A, Niles P. Paleo-Rock-Hosted Life on Earth and the Search on Mars: A Review and Strategy for Exploration. ASTROBIOLOGY 2019; 19:1230-1262. [PMID: 31237436 PMCID: PMC6786346 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2018.1960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2018] [Accepted: 04/25/2019] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Here we review published studies on the abundance and diversity of terrestrial rock-hosted life, the environments it inhabits, the evolution of its metabolisms, and its fossil biomarkers to provide guidance in the search for life on Mars. Key findings are (1) much terrestrial deep subsurface metabolic activity relies on abiotic energy-yielding fluxes and in situ abiotic and biotic recycling of metabolic waste products rather than on buried organic products of photosynthesis; (2) subsurface microbial cell concentrations are highest at interfaces with pronounced chemical redox gradients or permeability variations and do not correlate with bulk host rock organic carbon; (3) metabolic pathways for chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms evolved earlier in Earth's history than those of surface-dwelling phototrophic microorganisms; (4) the emergence of the former occurred at a time when Mars was habitable, whereas the emergence of the latter occurred at a time when the martian surface was not continually habitable; (5) the terrestrial rock record has biomarkers of subsurface life at least back hundreds of millions of years and likely to 3.45 Ga with several examples of excellent preservation in rock types that are quite different from those preserving the photosphere-supported biosphere. These findings suggest that rock-hosted life would have been more likely to emerge and be preserved in a martian context. Consequently, we outline a Mars exploration strategy that targets subsurface life and scales spatially, focusing initially on identifying rocks with evidence for groundwater flow and low-temperature mineralization, then identifying redox and permeability interfaces preserved within rock outcrops, and finally focusing on finding minerals associated with redox reactions and associated traces of carbon and diagnostic chemical and isotopic biosignatures. Using this strategy on Earth yields ancient rock-hosted life, preserved in the fossil record and confirmable via a suite of morphologic, organic, mineralogical, and isotopic fingerprints at micrometer scale. We expect an emphasis on rock-hosted life and this scale-dependent strategy to be crucial in the search for life on Mars.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- T.C. Onstott
- Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Address correspondence to: T.C. Onstott, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University,, Princeton, NJ 008544
| | - B.L. Ehlmann
- Division of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- B.L. Ehlmann, Division of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
| | - H. Sapers
- Division of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - M. Coleman
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- NASA Astrobiology Institute, Pasadena, California, USA
| | - M. Ivarsson
- Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - J.J. Marlow
- Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - A. Neubeck
- Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - P. Niles
- Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Hamilton TL. The trouble with oxygen: The ecophysiology of extant phototrophs and implications for the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Free Radic Biol Med 2019; 140:233-249. [PMID: 31078729 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2018] [Revised: 04/03/2019] [Accepted: 05/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The ability to harvest light to drive chemical reactions and gain energy provided microbes access to high energy electron donors which fueled primary productivity, biogeochemical cycles, and microbial evolution. Oxygenic photosynthesis is often cited as the most important microbial innovation-the emergence of oxygen-evolving photosynthesis, aided by geologic events, is credited with tipping the scale from a reducing early Earth to an oxygenated world that eventually lead to complex life. Anoxygenic photosynthesis predates oxygen-evolving photosynthesis and played a key role in developing and fine-tuning the photosystem architecture of modern oxygenic phototrophs. The release of oxygen as a by-product of metabolic activity would have caused oxidative damage to anaerobic microbiota that evolved under the anoxic, reducing conditions of early Earth. Photosynthetic machinery is particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of oxygen and reactive oxygen species and these effects are compounded by light. As a result, phototrophs employ additional detoxification mechanisms to mitigate oxidative stress and have evolved alternative oxygen-dependent enzymes for chlorophyll biosynthesis. Phylogenetic reconstruction studies and biochemical characterization suggest photosynthetic reactions centers, particularly in Cyanobacteria, evolved to both increase efficiency of electron transfer and avoid photodamage caused by chlorophyll radicals that is acute in the presence of oxygen. Here we review the oxygen and reactive oxygen species detoxification mechanisms observed in extant anoxygenic and oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria as well as the emergence of these mechanisms over evolutionary time. We examine the distribution of phototrophs in modern systems and phylogenetic reconstructions to evaluate the emergence of mechanisms to mediate oxidative damage and highlight changes in photosystems and reaction centers, chlorophyll biosynthesis, and niche space in response to oxygen production. This synthesis supports an emergence of H2S-driven anoxygenic photosynthesis in Cyanobacteria prior to the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and underscores a role for the former metabolism in fueling fine-tuning of the oxygen evolving complex and mechanisms to repair oxidative damage. In contrast, we note the lack of elaborate mechanisms to deal with oxygen in non-cyanobacterial anoxygenic phototrophs suggesting these microbes have occupied similar niche space throughout Earth's history.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Trinity L Hamilton
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA; Biotechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
40
|
Ward LM, Shih PM. The evolution and productivity of carbon fixation pathways in response to changes in oxygen concentration over geological time. Free Radic Biol Med 2019; 140:188-199. [PMID: 30790657 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.01.049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2018] [Revised: 01/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/31/2019] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
The fixation of inorganic carbon species like CO2 to more reduced organic forms is one of the most fundamental processes of life as we know it. Although several carbon fixation pathways are known to exist, on Earth today nearly all global carbon fixation is driven by the Calvin cycle in oxygenic photosynthetic plants, algae, and Cyanobacteria. At other times in Earth history, other organisms utilizing different carbon fixation pathways may have played relatively larger roles, with this balance shifting over geological time as the environmental context of life has changed and evolutionary innovations accumulated. Among the most dramatic changes that our planet and the biosphere have undergone are those surrounding the rise of O2 in our atmosphere-first during the Great Oxygenation Event at ∼2.3 Ga, and perhaps again during Neoproterozoic or Paleozoic time. These oxygenation events likely represent major step changes in the tempo and mode of biological productivity as a result of the increased productivity of oxygenic photosynthesis and the introduction of O2 into geochemical and biological systems, and likely involved shifts in the relative contribution of different carbon fixation pathways. Here, we review what is known from both the rock record and comparative biology about the evolution of carbon fixation pathways, their contributions to primary productivity through time, and their relationship to the evolving oxygenation state of the fluid Earth following the evolution and expansion of oxygenic photosynthesis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lewis M Ward
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
| | - Patrick M Shih
- Department of Plant Biology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States; Department of Energy, Feedstocks Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA, United States; Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States.
| |
Collapse
|
41
|
Lingappa UF, Monteverde DR, Magyar JS, Valentine JS, Fischer WW. How manganese empowered life with dioxygen (and vice versa). Free Radic Biol Med 2019; 140:113-125. [PMID: 30738765 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.01.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2018] [Accepted: 01/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Throughout the history of life on Earth, abiotic components of the environment have shaped the evolution of life, and in turn life has shaped the environment. The element manganese embodies a special aspect of this collaboration; its history is closely entwined with those of photosynthesis and O2-two reigning features that characterize the biosphere today. Manganese chemistry was central to the environmental context and evolutionary innovations that enabled the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis and the ensuing rise of O2. It was also manganese chemistry that provided an early, fortuitous antioxidant system that was instrumental in how life came to cope with oxidative stress and ultimately thrive in an aerobic world. Subsequently, the presence of O2 transformed the biogeochemical dynamics of the manganese cycle, enabling a rich suite of environmental and biological processes involving high-valent manganese and manganese redox cycling. Here, we describe insights from chemistry, biology, and geology, to examine manganese dynamics in the environment, and its unique role in the history of life.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Usha F Lingappa
- Div. of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.
| | - Danielle R Monteverde
- Div. of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
| | - John S Magyar
- Div. of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
| | - Joan Selverstone Valentine
- Div. of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA; Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
| | - Woodward W Fischer
- Div. of Geological & Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Braakman R. Evolution of cellular metabolism and the rise of a globally productive biosphere. Free Radic Biol Med 2019; 140:172-187. [PMID: 31082508 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.05.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2018] [Revised: 02/28/2019] [Accepted: 05/02/2019] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Metabolic processes in cells and chemical processes in the environment are fundamentally intertwined and have evolved in concert for most of Earth's existence. Here I argue that intrinsic properties of cellular metabolism imposed central constraints on the historical trajectories of biopsheric productivity and atmospheric oxygenation. Photosynthesis depends on iron, but iron is highly insoluble under the aerobic conditions produced by oxygenic photosynthesis. These counteracting constraints led to two major stages of Earth oxygenation. After a cyanobacteria-driven biospheric expansion near the Archean-Proterozoic boundary, productivity remained largely restricted to continental boundaries and shallow aquatic environments where weathering inputs made iron more accessible. The anoxic deep open ocean was rich in free iron during the Proterozoic, but this iron was largely inaccessible, partly because an otherwise nutrient-poor ocean was limiting to photosynthesis, but also because a photosynthetic expansion would have quenched its own iron supply. Near the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic boundary, bioenergetics innovations allowed eukaryotic photosynthesis to overcome these interconnected negative feedbacks and begin expanding into the deep open oceans and onto the continents, where nutrients are inherently harder to come by. Key insights into what drove the ecological rise of eukaryotic photosynthesis emerge from analyses of marine Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, abundant marine picocyanobacteria whose ancestors colonized the oceans in the Neoproterozoic. The reconstructed evolution of this group reveals a sequence of innovations that ultimately produced a form of photosynthesis in Prochlorococcus that is more like that of green plant cells than other cyanobacteria. Innovations increased the energy flux of cells, thereby enhancing their ability to acquire sparse nutrients, and as by-product also increased the production of organic carbon waste. Some of these organic waste products had the ability to chelate iron and make it bioavailable, thereby indirectly pushing the oceans through a transition from an anoxic state rich in free iron to an oxygenated state with organic carbon-bound iron. Resulting conditions (and parallel processes on the continents) in turn led to a series of positive feedbacks that increased the availability of other nutrients, thereby promoting the rise of a globally productive biosphere. In addition to the occurrence of major biospheric expansions, the several hundred million-year periods around the Archean-Proterozoic and Proterozoic-Phanerozoic boundaries share a number of other parallels. Both epochs have also been linked to major carbon cycle perturbations and global glaciations, as well as changes in the nature of plate tectonics and increases in continental exposure and weathering. This suggests the dynamics of life and Earth are intimately intertwined across many levels and that general principles governed transitions in these coupled dynamics at both times in Earth history.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rogier Braakman
- Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Johnson JE. From minerals to metabolisms: Evidence for life before oxygen from the geological record. Free Radic Biol Med 2019; 140:126-137. [PMID: 30743045 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.01.047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2018] [Revised: 12/18/2018] [Accepted: 01/31/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jena E Johnson
- Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, 1100 N. University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
44
|
Schad M, Konhauser KO, Sánchez-Baracaldo P, Kappler A, Bryce C. How did the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis influence the temporal and spatial development of the microbial iron cycle on ancient Earth? Free Radic Biol Med 2019; 140:154-166. [PMID: 31323314 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.07.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Revised: 07/05/2019] [Accepted: 07/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Iron is the most abundant redox active metal on Earth and thus provides one of the most important records of the redox state of Earth's ancient atmosphere, oceans and landmasses over geological time. The most dramatic shifts in the Earth's iron cycle occurred during the oxidation of Earth's atmosphere. However, tracking the spatial and temporal development of the iron cycle is complicated by uncertainties about both the timing and location of the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, and by the myriad of microbial processes that act to cycle iron between redox states. In this review, we piece together the geological evidence to assess where and when oxygenic photosynthesis likely evolved, and attempt to evaluate the influence of this innovation on the microbial iron cycle.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Schad
- Geomicrobiology, Center for Applied Geosciences, University of Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Kurt O Konhauser
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E3, Canada
| | | | - Andreas Kappler
- Geomicrobiology, Center for Applied Geosciences, University of Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Casey Bryce
- Geomicrobiology, Center for Applied Geosciences, University of Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
45
|
Ward LM, Stamenković V, Hand K, Fischer WW. Follow the Oxygen: Comparative Histories of Planetary Oxygenation and Opportunities for Aerobic Life. ASTROBIOLOGY 2019; 19:811-824. [PMID: 31188035 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Aerobic respiration-the reduction of molecular oxygen (O2) coupled to the oxidation of reduced compounds such as organic carbon, ferrous iron, reduced sulfur compounds, or molecular hydrogen while conserving energy to drive cellular processes-is the most widespread and bioenergetically favorable metabolism on Earth today. Aerobic respiration is essential for the development of complex multicellular life; thus the presence of abundant O2 is an important metric for planetary habitability. O2 on Earth is supplied by oxygenic photosynthesis, but it is becoming more widely understood that abiotic processes may supply meaningful amounts of O2 on other worlds. The modern atmosphere and rock record of Mars suggest a history of relatively high O2 as a result of photochemical processes, potentially overlapping with the range of O2 concentrations used by biology. Europa may have accumulated high O2 concentrations in its subsurface ocean due to the radiolysis of water ice at its surface. Recent modeling efforts suggest that coexisting water and O2 may be common on exoplanets, with confirmation from measurements of exoplanet atmospheres potentially coming soon. In all these cases, O2 accumulates through abiotic processes-independent of water-oxidizing photosynthesis. We hypothesize that abiogenic O2 may enhance the habitability of some planetary environments, allowing highly energetic aerobic respiration and potentially even the development of complex multicellular life which depends on it, without the need to first evolve oxygenic photosynthesis. This hypothesis is testable with further exploration and life-detection efforts on O2-rich worlds such as Mars and Europa, and comparison to O2-poor worlds such as Enceladus. This hypothesis further suggests a new dimension to planetary habitability: "Follow the Oxygen," in which environments with opportunities for energy-rich metabolisms such as aerobic respiration are preferentially targeted for investigation and life detection.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lewis M Ward
- 1 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
| | - Vlada Stamenković
- 2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
| | - Kevin Hand
- 2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
| | - Woodward W Fischer
- 1 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Cardona T, Sánchez‐Baracaldo P, Rutherford AW, Larkum AW. Early Archean origin of Photosystem II. GEOBIOLOGY 2019; 17:127-150. [PMID: 30411862 PMCID: PMC6492235 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2018] [Revised: 10/03/2018] [Accepted: 10/11/2018] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Photosystem II is a photochemical reaction center that catalyzes the light-driven oxidation of water to molecular oxygen. Water oxidation is the distinctive photochemical reaction that permitted the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and the eventual rise of eukaryotes. At what point during the history of life an ancestral photosystem evolved the capacity to oxidize water still remains unknown. Here, we study the evolution of the core reaction center proteins of Photosystem II using sequence and structural comparisons in combination with Bayesian relaxed molecular clocks. Our results indicate that a homodimeric photosystem with sufficient oxidizing power to split water had already appeared in the early Archean about a billion years before the most recent common ancestor of all described Cyanobacteria capable of oxygenic photosynthesis, and well before the diversification of some of the known groups of anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria. Based on a structural and functional rationale, we hypothesize that this early Archean photosystem was capable of water oxidation to oxygen and had already evolved protection mechanisms against the formation of reactive oxygen species. This would place primordial forms of oxygenic photosynthesis at a very early stage in the evolutionary history of life.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tanai Cardona
- Department of Life SciencesImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
47
|
Ostrander CM, Nielsen SG, Owens JD, Kendall B, Gordon GW, Romaniello SJ, Anbar AD. Fully oxygenated water columns over continental shelves before the Great Oxidation Event. NATURE GEOSCIENCE 2019; 12:186-191. [PMID: 30847006 PMCID: PMC6398953 DOI: 10.1038/s41561-019-0309-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2018] [Accepted: 01/15/2019] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Late Archaean sedimentary rocks contain compelling geochemical evidence for episodic accumulation of dissolved oxygen in the oceans along continental margins before the Great Oxidation Event. However, the extent of this oxygenation remains poorly constrained. Here we present thallium and molybdenum isotope compositions for anoxic organic-rich shales of the 2.5 billion-year-old Mount McRae Shale from Western Australia, which previously yielded geochemical evidence of a transient oxygenation event. During this event, we observe an anti-correlation between thalium and molybdenum isotope data, including two shifts to higher molybdenum and lower thalium isotope compositions. Our data indicate pronounced burial of manganese oxides in sediments elsewhere in the ocean at these times, which requires that water columns above portions of the ocean floor were fully oxygenated: all the way from the air-sea interface to well below the sediment-water interface. Well-oxygenated continental shelves were likely the most important sites of manganese oxide burial and mass-balance modeling results suggest that fully oxygenated water columns were at least a regional-scale feature of early-Earth's oceans 2.5 billion years ago.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Chadlin M. Ostrander
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
- NIRVANA Laboratories, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
| | - Sune G. Nielsen
- NIRVANA Laboratories, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
| | - Jeremy D. Owens
- Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Brian Kendall
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, CA
| | - Gwyneth W. Gordon
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | | | - Ariel D. Anbar
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Gutekunst K. Hypothesis on the Synchronistic Evolution of Autotrophy and Heterotrophy. Trends Biochem Sci 2018; 43:402-411. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tibs.2018.03.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2017] [Revised: 03/05/2018] [Accepted: 03/20/2018] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
|
49
|
Gisriel C, Saroussi S, Ramundo S, Fromme P. Gordon Research Conference on photosynthesis: photosynthetic plasticity from the environment to synthetic systems. PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESEARCH 2018; 136:393-405. [PMID: 29294241 DOI: 10.1007/s11120-017-0472-x] [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: 10/24/2017] [Accepted: 12/12/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Here, we provide a summary of the 2017 Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis: "Photosynthetic plasticity: from the environment to synthetic systems". This conference was held at the Grand Summit Resort Hotel at Sunday River, Newry, Maine, USA, from July 16 to 21, 2017. We have also included here a brief description of the Gordon Research Seminar (for students and post-docs) held during 2 days preceding this conference. Following the conclusion of the conference's scientific program, four young scientists (Han Bao, Vivek Tiwari, Setsuko Wakao, and Usha Lingappa) were recognized for their research presentations, each of whom received a book as a gift from one of us (Govindjee). Having chaired the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis in 2015, Fabrice Rappaport, who lost his fight against cancer in January 2016, was remembered for his profound impact on the field of photosynthesis research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Gisriel
- School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85281, USA.
| | - Shai Saroussi
- Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Silvia Ramundo
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
| | - Petra Fromme
- School of Molecular Sciences, and Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA
| |
Collapse
|
50
|
Martin WF, Bryant DA, Beatty JT. A physiological perspective on the origin and evolution of photosynthesis. FEMS Microbiol Rev 2018; 42:205-231. [PMID: 29177446 PMCID: PMC5972617 DOI: 10.1093/femsre/fux056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2017] [Accepted: 11/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The origin and early evolution of photosynthesis are reviewed from an ecophysiological perspective. Earth's first ecosystems were chemotrophic, fueled by geological H2 at hydrothermal vents and, required flavin-based electron bifurcation to reduce ferredoxin for CO2 fixation. Chlorophyll-based phototrophy (chlorophototrophy) allowed autotrophs to generate reduced ferredoxin without electron bifurcation, providing them access to reductants other than H2. Because high-intensity, short-wavelength electromagnetic radiation at Earth's surface would have been damaging for the first chlorophyll (Chl)-containing cells, photosynthesis probably arose at hydrothermal vents under low-intensity, long-wavelength geothermal light. The first photochemically active pigments were possibly Zn-tetrapyrroles. We suggest that (i) after the evolution of red-absorbing Chl-like pigments, the first light-driven electron transport chains reduced ferredoxin via a type-1 reaction center (RC) progenitor with electrons from H2S; (ii) photothioautotrophy, first with one RC and then with two, was the bridge between H2-dependent chemolithoautotrophy and water-splitting photosynthesis; (iii) photothiotrophy sustained primary production in the photic zone of Archean oceans; (iv) photosynthesis arose in an anoxygenic cyanobacterial progenitor; (v) Chl a is the ancestral Chl; and (vi), anoxygenic chlorophototrophic lineages characterized so far acquired, by horizontal gene transfer, RCs and Chl biosynthesis with or without autotrophy, from the architects of chlorophototrophy-the cyanobacterial lineage.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- William F Martin
- Institute for Molecular Evolution, University of Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Donald A Bryant
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
| | - J Thomas Beatty
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, 2350 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| |
Collapse
|