地球上の初期生命に関する理解が飛躍的に深まる(Exponentially increasing understanding of early life on Earth)

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2024-07-08 カリフォルニア大学リバーサイド校(UCR)

カリフォルニア大学リバーサイド校の研究者たちは、生命の起源と初期進化を理解するための新たな道を開きました。彼らは、古代の岩石に保存された初期生命の痕跡を現代の生物や初期の海洋、大気、大陸の進化に関するデータと結びつけました。この研究により、酸素を生成するバクテリアやメタン生成古細菌などの微生物が、地球の環境と相互作用しながら進化していった過程が明らかになりました。これにより、地球外生命の探求や気候変動への対処に新たな視点が提供されました。

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地球初期環境と微生物生命の共進化 Co‐evolution of early Earth environments and microbial life

Timothy W. Lyons,Christopher J. Tino,Gregory P. Fournier,Rika E. Anderson,William D. Leavitt,Kurt O. Konhauser & Eva E. Stüeken
Nature Reviews Microbiology  Published:29 May 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-024-01044-y

地球上の初期生命に関する理解が飛躍的に深まる(Exponentially increasing understanding of early life on Earth)

Abstract

Two records of Earth history capture the evolution of life and its co-evolving ecosystems with interpretable fidelity: the geobiological and geochemical traces preserved in rocks and the evolutionary histories captured within genomes. The earliest vestiges of life are recognized mostly in isotopic fingerprints of specific microbial metabolisms, whereas fossils and organic biomarkers become important later. Molecular biology provides lineages that can be overlayed on geologic and geochemical records of evolving life. All these data lie within a framework of biospheric evolution that is primarily characterized by the transition from an oxygen-poor to an oxygen-rich world. In this Review, we explore the history of microbial life on Earth and the degree to which it shaped, and was shaped by, fundamental transitions in the chemical properties of the oceans, continents and atmosphere. We examine the diversity and evolution of early metabolic processes, their couplings with biogeochemical cycles and their links to the oxygenation of the early biosphere. We discuss the distinction between the beginnings of metabolisms and their subsequent proliferation and their capacity to shape surface environments on a planetary scale. The evolution of microbial life and its ecological impacts directly mirror the Earth’s chemical and physical evolution through cause-and-effect relationships.

生物工学一般
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