Carbonaceous biosignatures of the earliest putative macroscopic multicellular eukaryotes from 1630 Ma Tuanshanzi Formation, north China

Zhu, Shifa; Whitehouse, Martin J.; Engdahl, Anders; McLoughlin, Nicola

doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2017.11.004

Cited by 29 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The earliest widely accepted fossil of a photosynthetic eukaryote is that from a multicellular red algae, Bangiomorpha (Butterfield, ; Knoll, Worndle, & Kah, ), thought to be 1.0 Ga (Gibson et al., ). Recently described multicellular eukaryotic algae fossils have been reported at 1.6 Ga (Bengtson et al., ; Qu, Zhu, Whitehouse, Engdahl, & McLoughlin, ; Sallstedt et al., ) suggesting that the earliest photosynthetic eukaryotes might be older than that, which would be consistent with recent molecular clock analysis (Yang et al., ; Sanchez‐Baracaldo, Raven, Pisani, & Knoll, ).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 64%

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

et al. 2018

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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.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 64%

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

et al. 2018

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show abstract

“…The earliest widely accepted fossil of a photosynthetic eukaryote is that from a multicellular red algae, Bangiomorpha (Butterfield, 2000;Knoll et al, 2013), thought to be 1.0 Ga (Gibson et al, 2017). Recently described multicellular eukaryotic algae fossils have been reported at 1.6 Ga (Bengtson et al, 2017;Qu et al, 2018;Sallstedt et al, 2018) suggesting that the earliest photosynthetic eukaryotes might be older than that, which would be consistent with recent molecular clock analysis (E. C. Yang et al, 2016;Sánchez-Baracaldo et al, 2017).…”

Section: Bayesian Relaxed Molecular Clock and Fossil Calibrationssupporting

confidence: 64%

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

Cardona

Sánchez‐Baracaldo

Rutherford

et al. 2017

Preprint

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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 and had already evolved some level of protection against the formation of reactive oxygen species, which would place primordial forms of oxygenic photosynthesis at a very early stage in the evolutionary history of life.

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“…The idea is to use the I(1350)/I(1600) versus R3/2 trends to discriminate between prokaryotic and eukaryotic fossils (29)(30)(31). Eukaryotic cells differ widely from the prokaryotic ones in terms of their cell structure and chemical compositions (i.e., different membranes, cell wall, and organelles), which result in different taphonomic behaviors and distinctive I(1350)/I(1600) versus R3/2 trends (29,30). Synchrotron radiationbased (SR)-micro-FTIR (FTIR) spectra ( Fig.…”

Section: Organic Matter Ultrastructure In Fossil Filamentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular identification of fungi microfossils in a Neoproterozoic shale rock

et al. 2020

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Precambrian fossils of fungi are sparse, and the knowledge of their early evolution and the role they played in the colonization of land surface are limited. Here, we report the discovery of fungi fossils in a 810 to 715 million year old dolomitic shale from the Mbuji-Mayi Supergroup, Democratic Republic of Congo. Syngenetically preserved in a transitional, subaerially exposed paleoenvironment, these carbonaceous filaments of ~5 μm in width exhibit low-frequency septation (pseudosepta) and high-angle branching that can form dense interconnected mycelium-like structures. Using an array of microscopic (SEM, TEM, and confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy) and spectroscopic techniques (Raman, FTIR, and XANES), we demonstrated the presence of vestigial chitin in these fossil filaments and document the eukaryotic nature of their precursor. Based on those combined evidences, these fossil filaments and mycelium-like structures are identified as remnants of fungal networks and represent the oldest, molecularly identified remains of Fungi.

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Carbonaceous biosignatures of the earliest putative macroscopic multicellular eukaryotes from 1630 Ma Tuanshanzi Formation, north China

Cited by 29 publications

References 45 publications

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

Molecular identification of fungi microfossils in a Neoproterozoic shale rock

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Carbonaceous biosignatures of the earliest putative macroscopic multicellular eukaryotes from 1630 Ma Tuanshanzi Formation, north China

Cited by 29 publications

References 45 publications

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

Early Archean origin of Photosystem II

Molecular identification of fungi microfossils in a Neoproterozoic shale rock

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Carbonaceous biosignatures of the earliest putative macroscopic multicellular eukaryotes from 1630 Ma Tuanshanzi Formation, north China