Cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation Event: evidence from genes and fossils

Schirrmeister, Bettina E.; Gugger, Muriel; Donoghue, Philip C. J.

doi:10.1111/pala.12193

Cited by 59 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 2 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…Traditionally, uniseriate trichomes with no cell differentiation were placed in the Oscillatoriales (Elenkin, 1949) or Subgroup III (Rippka et al, 1979) of the Cyanobacteria. Molecular phylogenies now make it clear that, as circumscribed, this group is not monophyletic (e.g., Giovannoni et al, 1988;Schirrmeister et al, 2015), but whether simple filamentous multicellularity evolved once within the cyanobacteria and was lost several times (Schirrmeister et al, 2015) or evolved multiple times convergently (Ishida et al, 2001) remains a topic of debate. In either event, the microfossil record of Subgroup III cyanobacteria is one of cellular trichomes, variously well preserved, and extracellular sheaths, and so extant species assigned to Lyngbya, Oscillatoria, and related genera provide a morphological basis for interpretation.…”

Section: Filamentous Microfossilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfossils from the lower Mesoproterozoic Kaltasy Formation, East European Platform

Сергеев

Knoll

Воробьева

et al. 2016

Precambrian Research

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Basinal shales of the lower Mesoproterozoic Kaltasy Formation, sampled from three boreholes drilled into the southeastern East European Platform, Russia, contain abundant and moderately well preserved microfossils. 34 distinct entities have been identified, most assigned to simple sphaeromorphic or small filamentous taxa found widely and characterized by long stratigraphic ranges. Ornamented microfossils found in coastal successions of other lower Mesoproterozoic basins are absent, but large filamentous microfossils interpreted as possible benthic photosynthetic eukaryotes are recorded, drawing comparisons to relatively deep water shales in Siberia. In overall aspect, the Kaltasy microfossils are consistent with other broadly coeval assemblages, but they highlight the importance of environment, as well as age, in determining the distributions of remains that record the early diversification of marine eukaryotes. Rectia magna is described as a new species.

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Section: Filamentous Microfossilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfossils from the lower Mesoproterozoic Kaltasy Formation, East European Platform

Сергеев

Knoll

Воробьева

et al. 2016

Precambrian Research

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“…Today independently evolved unicellular and multicellular lineages exist, which seem to originally have descended from ancient multicellular cyanobacteria (Schirrmeister et al 2011). Results of phylogenomic studies including molecular clocks, have suggested an Archean origin of cyanobacteria, possibly in freshwater, followed by an early diversification at the beginning of the Proterozoic (Blank & Sanchez-Baracaldo 2010;Schirrmeister et al 2015). However, in order to date the evolutionary history of the biosphere on the scale of single phyla or even the tree of life, informative and accurate calibrations are essential.…”

Section: Phylogenetic History Of Cyanobacteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies have questioned the bifurcating history of the tree of life, due to genetic exchange via lateral gene transfer (LGT; Ochman et al 2000;Kunin et al 2005). Yet, even though LGT can occur, as shown for example at threonyl tRNA synthease (Zhaxybayeva et al 2006), ribosomal genes seem to be rather conserved (Schirrmeister et al 2012) and large-scale multi-gene phylogenetic analyses have improved our understanding of cyanobacteria and reconstructed the phylum's history with increased statistical support for deep-branching (Shih et al 2013;Bombar et al 2014;Sanchez-Baracaldo et al 2014;Schirrmeister et al 2015).…”

Section: Phylogenetic History Of Cyanobacteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover results of phylogenomic analyses point towards the presence of cyanobacteria in the Archean, well before the rise of atmospheric oxygen (Schirrmeister et al 2013;Schirrmeister et al 2015). Phylogenomic studies further indicate that an ancient transition to multicellularity in cyanobacteria possibly provided adaptive advantages (Schirrmeister et al 2015), such as motility within bacterial mats to position themselves optimally (Stal 1995), or improved surface attachment during mat formation (Young 2006). These, in combination with adaptation to higher salinities and the ability to form laminated mats, would have helped cyanobacteria to spread and diversify at the end of the Archean (Blank & Sanchez-Baracaldo 2010;Schirrmeister et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cyanobacterial evolution during the Precambrian

Schirrmeister¹,

Sánchez‐Baracaldo²,

Wacey

2016

International Journal of Astrobiology

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125

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Life on Earth has existed for at least 3.5 billion years. Yet, relatively little is known of its evolution during the first two billion years, due to the scarceness and generally poor preservation of fossilized biological material. Cyanobacteria, formerly known as blue green algae were among the first crown Eubacteria to evolve and for more than 2.5 billion years they have strongly influenced Earth's biosphere. Being the only organism where oxygenic photosynthesis has originated, they have oxygenated Earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere, triggered the evolution of plants -being ancestral to chloroplasts-and enabled the evolution of complex life based on aerobic respiration. Having such a strong impact on early life, one might expect that the evolutionary success of this group may also have triggered further biosphere changes during early Earth history. However, very little is known about the early evolution of this phylum and ongoing debates about cyanobacterial fossils, biomarkers and molecular clock analyses highlight the difficulties in this field of research. Although phylogenomic analyses have provided promising glimpses into the early evolution of cyanobacteria, estimated divergence ages are often very uncertain, because of vague and insufficient tree-calibrations. Results of molecular clock analyses are intrinsically tied to these prior calibration points, hence improving calibrations will enable more precise divergence time estimations. Here we provide a review of previously described Precambrian microfossils, biomarkers and geochemical markers that inform upon the early evolution of cyanobacteria. Future research in micropalaeontology will require novel analyses and imaging techniques to improve taxonomic affiliation of many Precambrian microfossils. Consequently, a better understanding of early cyanobacterial evolution will not only allow for a more specific calibration of cyanobacterial and eubacterial phylogenies, but also provide new dates for the tree of life.

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“…Transient multicellularity may occur to promote benefits associated with increased size, to mitigate predation risks or nutrient stressors, and these are associated with distinct evolutionary costs and benefits (Bonner, 1998;Grosberg & Strathmann, 2007). True multicellularity in Cyanobacteria has been lost and regained several times during their life history, which has led to the current distribution of both unicellular and multicellular cyanobacterial forms (Tomitani et al, 2006;Schirrmeister et al, 2011Schirrmeister et al, , 2015. Therefore, the traditional cyanobacteria classification, based on the most obvious phenotypic features (i.e.…”

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confidence: 99%