Ancient Bacteria Were Breathing Long Before Oxygen Became Abundant

Today is oxygen 21% of our atmosphereBut it was not so much. Siyanobacteria-water bacteria, which produce energy with photosynthesis about 2.7 billion years ago and starting the oxygen of oxygen. This is gradually gathered in a process called this oxygen called in the atmosphere Great Oxidation event Occurring 2.4 to 2.1 billion years ago (Goe). At the same time, the new research shows that the aerobics (dependent on oxygen) can be emerged from the Goe of bacteria.

The team of international researchers, one of the earliest forms of Earth, revealed the evolution tree of the evolutionary tree, and the bacteria revealed to the existence of oxygen, more than in our atmosphere. Their works, in detail a learn Today, the magazine was released in the science of magazine, most of the life was anaerobic, ie there are organisms that do not need oxygen to live.

Researchers used a diversified approach to reconstruction of the evolutionary tree for bacteria and adapt to oxygen. Here geological notes, fossil arguments and analysis of more than 1,000 different bacterial genomes; application philogenetic reconciliation (comparing the date of the two-nearest life form); and computer modeling. According to the evolutionary tree trees, the last general ancestor of modern bacteria is probably a period of 4.4 to 3.9 billion years ago.

“The combined approach to use genomical data, fossils and geochemical history of the earth, especially brings new clarity for germs without fossil notes. statement.

The results show that some aerobic bacteria appeared in front of Goe, 3.22 to 3.25 billion years ago. It is likely that these bacterial generations were ancestors of cyanobacteria, ie the ability to metabolize small amounts of oxygen before developing photosynthesis. In fact, as a research, oxygen adaptation, the evolution of photosynthetic abilities of Cyanobacter, shows that changes in the atmosphere of the earth can play a decisive role in the changes in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The team’s approach “works well to learn the spread of aerobic metabolism, and how other symptoms may be a useful approach to the varying environment,” said Tom Williams, the University of Bristol, and also the author of the evolutionary biologist and also education.

Research is also a reminder of the formation of the atmosphere we enjoy today with billions of years.