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Porfirio-Sousa AL, Tice AK, Morais L, Ribeiro GM, Blandenier Q, Dumack K, Eglit Y, Fry NW, Gomes E Souza MB, Henderson TC, Kleitz-Singleton F, Singer D, Brown MW, Lahr DJG. Amoebozoan testate amoebae illuminate the diversity of heterotrophs and the complexity of ecosystems throughout geological time. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2319628121. [PMID: 39012821 PMCID: PMC11287125 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2319628121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2024] [Indexed: 07/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Heterotrophic protists are vital in Earth's ecosystems, influencing carbon and nutrient cycles and occupying key positions in food webs as microbial predators. Fossils and molecular data suggest the emergence of predatory microeukaryotes and the transition to a eukaryote-rich marine environment by 800 million years ago (Ma). Neoproterozoic vase-shaped microfossils (VSMs) linked to Arcellinida testate amoebae represent the oldest evidence of heterotrophic microeukaryotes. This study explores the phylogenetic relationship and divergence times of modern Arcellinida and related taxa using a relaxed molecular clock approach. We estimate the origin of nodes leading to extant members of the Arcellinida Order to have happened during the latest Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic (1054 to 661 Ma), while the divergence of extant infraorders postdates the Silurian. Our results demonstrate that at least one major heterotrophic eukaryote lineage originated during the Neoproterozoic. A putative radiation of eukaryotic groups (e.g., Arcellinida) during the early-Neoproterozoic sustained by favorable ecological and environmental conditions may have contributed to eukaryotic life endurance during the Cryogenian severe ice ages. Moreover, we infer that Arcellinida most likely already inhabited terrestrial habitats during the Neoproterozoic, coexisting with terrestrial Fungi and green algae, before land plant radiation. The most recent extant Arcellinida groups diverged during the Silurian Period, alongside other taxa within Fungi and flowering plants. These findings shed light on heterotrophic microeukaryotes' evolutionary history and ecological significance in Earth's ecosystems, using testate amoebae as a proxy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alfredo L. Porfirio-Sousa
- Department of Zoology, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo05508-090, Brazil
- Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS39762
| | - Alexander K. Tice
- Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS39762
- Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX79409
| | - Luana Morais
- Department of Geophysics, Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo05508-090, Brazil
- Department of Applied Geology, Institute of Geosciences and Exact Sciences, São Paulo State University, Rio Claro13506-900, Brazil
| | - Giulia M. Ribeiro
- Department of Zoology, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo05508-090, Brazil
| | - Quentin Blandenier
- Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS39762
| | - Kenneth Dumack
- Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Institute of Zoology, University of Cologne, Cologne50674, Germany
| | - Yana Eglit
- Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NSB3H 4R2, Canada
- Department of Biology, Institute for Comparative Genomics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NSV8P 3E6, Canada
- Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BCV8P 3E6, Canada
| | - Nicholas W. Fry
- Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS39762
| | | | - Tristan C. Henderson
- Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS39762
| | | | - David Singer
- Soil Science and Environment Group, Changins, Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Nyon1148, Switzerland
| | - Matthew W. Brown
- Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS39762
- Department of Biological Sciences, Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing & Biotechnology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS39762
| | - Daniel J. G. Lahr
- Department of Zoology, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo05508-090, Brazil
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Maloney KM, Halverson GP, Lechte M, Gibson TM, Bui TH, Schiffbauer JD, Laflamme M. The paleoredox context of early eukaryotic evolution: insights from the Tonian Mackenzie Mountains Supergroup, Canada. GEOBIOLOGY 2024; 22:e12598. [PMID: 38700417 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2023] [Revised: 03/18/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 05/05/2024]
Abstract
Tonian (ca. 1000-720 Ma) marine environments are hypothesised to have experienced major redox changes coinciding with the evolution and diversification of multicellular eukaryotes. In particular, the earliest Tonian stratigraphic record features the colonisation of benthic habitats by multicellular macroscopic algae, which would have been powerful ecosystem engineers that contributed to the oxygenation of the oceans and the reorganisation of biogeochemical cycles. However, the paleoredox context of this expansion of macroalgal habitats in Tonian nearshore marine environments remains uncertain due to limited well-preserved fossils and stratigraphy. As such, the interdependent relationship between early complex life and ocean redox state is unclear. An assemblage of macrofossils including the chlorophyte macroalga Archaeochaeta guncho was recently discovered in the lower Mackenzie Mountains Supergroup in Yukon (Canada), which archives marine sedimentation from ca. 950-775 Ma, permitting investigation into environmental evolution coincident with eukaryotic ecosystem evolution and expansion. Here we present multi-proxy geochemical data from the lower Mackenzie Mountains Supergroup to constrain the paleoredox environment within which these large benthic macroalgae thrived. Two transects show evidence for basin-wide anoxic (ferruginous) oceanic conditions (i.e., high FeHR/FeT, low Fepy/FeHR), with muted redox-sensitive trace metal enrichments and possible seasonal variability. However, the weathering of sulfide minerals in the studied samples may obscure geochemical signatures of euxinic conditions. These results suggest that macroalgae colonized shallow environments in an ocean that remained dominantly anoxic with limited evidence for oxygenation until ca. 850 Ma. Collectively, these geochemical results provide novel insights into the environmental conditions surrounding the evolution and expansion of benthic macroalgae and the eventual dominance of oxygenated oceanic conditions required for the later emergence of animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie M Maloney
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences/GEOTOP, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
| | - Galen P Halverson
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences/GEOTOP, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Maxwell Lechte
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences/GEOTOP, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Timothy M Gibson
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Thi Hao Bui
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences/GEOTOP, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - James D Schiffbauer
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
- X-ray Microanalysis Core, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | - Marc Laflamme
- Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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Mills DB, Simister RL, Sehein TR, Hallam SJ, Sperling EA, Crowe SA. Constraining the oxygen requirements for modern microbial eukaryote diversity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2303754120. [PMID: 38165897 PMCID: PMC10786294 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2303754120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Eukaryotes originated prior to the establishment of modern marine oxygen (O2) levels. According to the body fossil and lipid biomarker records, modern (crown) microbial eukaryote lineages began diversifying in the ocean no later than ~800 Ma. While it has long been predicted that increasing atmospheric O2 levels facilitated the early diversification of microbial eukaryotes, the O2 levels needed to permit this diversification remain unconstrained. Using time-resolved geochemical parameter and gene sequence information from a model marine oxygen minimum zone spanning a range of dissolved O2 levels and redox states, we show that microbial eukaryote taxonomic richness and phylogenetic diversity remain the same until O2 declines to around 2 to 3% of present atmospheric levels, below which these diversity metrics become significantly reduced. Our observations suggest that increasing O2 would have only directly promoted early crown-eukaryote diversity if atmospheric O2 was below 2 to 3% of modern levels when crown-eukaryotes originated and then later met or surpassed this range as crown-eukaryotes diversified. If atmospheric O2 was already consistently at or above 2 to 3% of modern levels by the time that crown-eukaryotes originated, then the subsequent diversification of modern microbial eukaryotes was not directly driven by atmospheric oxygenation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel B. Mills
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Paleontology and Geobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80333Munich, Germany
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- The Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA16802
| | - Rachel L. Simister
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Taylor R. Sehein
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA01063
| | - Steven J. Hallam
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Genome Science and Technology Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Life Sciences Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z3, Canada
- Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Ecosystem Services, Commercialization Platforms and Entrepreneurship (ECOSCOPE) Training Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Erik A. Sperling
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Sean A. Crowe
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
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