Oxygen reductase origin followed the great oxidation event and terminated the Lomagundi excursion.

ABSTRACT: The history of Earth's atmospheric oxygen is a cornerstone of evolutionary biology. While unequivocal evidence for an increase in atmospheric O₂ marks the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) roughly 2.4 billion years ago, evidence underlying proposals for pre-GOE O₂ accumulation is debated. Here we have investigated the distribution of genes for oxygen reductases, the enzymes that consume O₂ in respiratory chains, across independently generated molecular timescales of prokaryotic evolution. The data indicate that cytochrome bd-oxidases, heme-copper oxidases and alternative oxidases arose in the wake of the GOE ca. 2.4 billion years ago, after which the genes were subjected to abundant lateral gene transfer, a reflection of their utility in redox balance and membran

SUBMITTER: Trost K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7618691 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature