The Evolution of Oxygen-utilizing Enzymes Suggests Early Biosphere Oxygenation

Overview

Journal Nat Ecol Evol

Publisher Springer Nature

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 Feb 26

PMID 33633374

Citations 33

Authors

Jagoda Jablonska

Dan S Tawfik

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Production of molecular oxygen was a turning point in the Earth's history. The geological record indicates the Great Oxidation Event, which marked a permanent transition to an oxidizing atmosphere around 2.4 Ga. However, the degree to which oxygen was available to life before oxygenation of the atmosphere remains unknown. Here, phylogenetic analysis of all known oxygen-utilizing and -producing enzymes (O-enzymes) indicates that oxygen became widely available to living organisms well before the Great Oxidation Event. About 60% of the O-enzyme families whose birth can be dated appear to have emerged at the separation of terrestrial and marine bacteria (22 families, compared to two families assigned to the last universal common ancestor). This node, dubbed the last universal oxygen ancestor, coincides with a burst of emergence of both oxygenases and other oxidoreductases, thus suggesting a wider availability of oxygen around 3.1 Ga.

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