How old is photosynthesis on earth

Following this reasoning, the team looked for instances of horizontal gene transfer across the genomes of thousands of bacterial species, including cyanobacteria. They also used new cultures of modern cyanobacteria taken by Bosak and Moore, to more precisely use fossil cyanobacteria as calibrations. In the end, they identified 34 clear instances of horizontal gene transfer. They found that, during the Archean eon, the crown group originated around 2. This strongly suggests that oxygenic photosynthesis was already happening million years before the Great Oxidation Event GOE , and that cyanobacteria were producing oxygen for quite a long time before it accumulated in the atmosphere.

The analysis also revealed that, shortly before the GOE, around 2. This implies that a rapid expansion of cyanobacteria may have tipped the Earth into the GOE and launched oxygen into the atmosphere. Fournier plans to apply horizontal gene transfer beyond cyanobacteria to pin down the origins of other elusive species. Previous item Next item. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Search MIT. Search websites, locations, and people. Enter keywords to search for news articles: Submit.

Browse By. Materials provided by Elsevier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Science News. The earliest oxygen-producing microbes may not have been cyanobacteria. Story Source: Materials provided by Elsevier. Journal Reference : Tanai Cardona. Early Archean origin of heterodimeric Photosystem I.

Heliyon , ; 4 3 : e DOI: ScienceDaily, 6 March Photosynthesis originated a billion years earlier than we thought, study shows. Retrieved November 11, from www. They compared the evolution rate of these photosynthesis proteins to that of other key proteins in the evolution of life, including those that form energy storage molecules in the body and those that translate DNA sequences into RNA, which is thought to have originated before the ancestor of all cellular life on Earth.

They also compared the rate to events known to have occurred more recently, when life was already varied and cyanobacteria had appeared.

The photosynthesis proteins showed nearly identical patterns of evolution to the oldest enzymes, stretching far back in time, suggesting they evolved in a similar way. Knowing how these key photosynthesis proteins evolve is not only relevant for the search for life on other planets, but could also help researchers find strategies to use photosynthesis in new ways through synthetic biology. Larkum, A. Hayley Dunning Communications Division. These "anaerobes" that live without oxygen were poisoned when blue-green algae called cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis and started exhaling oxygen.

The highly reactive gas combines with metals and proteins in anaerobic cells, killing them. But cyanobacteria thrived, turning sunlight into sugar and excreting oxygen as waste. Oxygen levels in rocks suddenly rise starting 2. But a study published today March 23 in the journal Nature Geoscience joins a growing body of data that suggests the earliest sun-lovers appeared long before this oxygen spike.

Many researchers now think the first photosynthetic organisms lived on Earth 3 billion years ago.