TY - JOUR
T1 - Origin of microbial biomineralization and magnetotaxis during the Archean
AU - Lin, Wei
AU - Paterson, Greig A.
AU - Zhu, Qiyun
AU - Wang, Yinzhao
AU - Kopylova, Evguenia
AU - Li, Ying
AU - Knight, Rob
AU - Bazylinski, Dennis A.
AU - Zhu, Rixiang
AU - Kirschvink, Joseph L.
AU - Pan, Yongxin
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Longfei Wu for valuable comments and suggestions. W.L. and Y.P. acknowledge financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Grants 41330104, 41621004, and 41374074. W.L. acknowledges support from the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. G.A.P. acknowledges funding from NSFC Grants 41374072 and 41574063. D.A.B. is supported by US National Science Foundation Grant EAR-1423939. J.L.K. is supported by US National Aeronautics and Space Administration Exobiology Grant EXO14-2-0176.
PY - 2017/2/28
Y1 - 2017/2/28
N2 - Microbes that synthesize minerals, a process known as microbial biomineralization, contributed substantially to the evolution of current planetary environments through numerous important geochemical processes. Despite its geological significance, the origin and evolution of microbial biomineralization remain poorly understood. Through combined metagenomic and phylogenetic analyses of deep-branching magnetotactic bacteria from the Nitrospirae phylum, and using a Bayesian molecular clock-dating method, we show here that the gene cluster responsible for biomineralization of magnetosomes, and the arrangement of magnetosome chain(s) within cells, both originated before or near the Archean divergence between the Nitrospirae and Proteobacteria. This phylogenetic divergence occurred well before the Great Oxygenation Event. Magnetotaxis likely evolved due to environmental pressures conferring an evolutionary advantage to navigation via the geomagnetic field. Earth's dynamo must therefore have been sufficiently strong to sustain microbial magnetotaxis in the Archean, suggesting that magnetotaxis coevolved with the geodynamo over geological time.
AB - Microbes that synthesize minerals, a process known as microbial biomineralization, contributed substantially to the evolution of current planetary environments through numerous important geochemical processes. Despite its geological significance, the origin and evolution of microbial biomineralization remain poorly understood. Through combined metagenomic and phylogenetic analyses of deep-branching magnetotactic bacteria from the Nitrospirae phylum, and using a Bayesian molecular clock-dating method, we show here that the gene cluster responsible for biomineralization of magnetosomes, and the arrangement of magnetosome chain(s) within cells, both originated before or near the Archean divergence between the Nitrospirae and Proteobacteria. This phylogenetic divergence occurred well before the Great Oxygenation Event. Magnetotaxis likely evolved due to environmental pressures conferring an evolutionary advantage to navigation via the geomagnetic field. Earth's dynamo must therefore have been sufficiently strong to sustain microbial magnetotaxis in the Archean, suggesting that magnetotaxis coevolved with the geodynamo over geological time.
KW - Archean
KW - Geodynamo
KW - Magnetotactic bacteria
KW - Magnetotaxis
KW - Microbial biomineralization
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1614654114
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1614654114
M3 - Article
C2 - 28193877
AN - SCOPUS:85014095128
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 114
SP - 2171
EP - 2176
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 9
ER -