The Archean origin of oxygenic photosynthesis and extant cyanobacterial lineages.

ABSTRACT: The record of the coevolution of oxygenic phototrophs and the environment is preserved in three forms: genomes of modern organisms, diverse geochemical signals of surface oxidation and diagnostic Proterozoic microfossils. When calibrated by fossils, genomic data form the basis of molecular clock analyses. However, different interpretations of the geochemical record, fossil calibrations and evolutionary models produce a wide range of age estimates that are often conflicting. Here, we show that multiple interpretations of the cyanobacterial fossil record are consistent with an Archean origin of crown-group Cyanobacteria. We further show that incorporating relative dating information from horizontal gene transfers greatly improves the precision of these age estimates, by both providing a nove

SUBMITTER: Fournier GP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8479356 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature