Snowball Earth, population bottleneck and Prochlorococcus evolution.

ABSTRACT: Prochlorococcus are the most abundant photosynthetic organisms in the modern ocean. A massive DNA loss event occurred in their early evolutionary history, leading to highly reduced genomes in nearly all lineages, as well as enhanced efficiency in both nutrient uptake and light absorption. The environmental landscape that shaped this ancient genome reduction, however, remained unknown. Through careful molecular clock analyses, we established that this Prochlorococcus genome reduction occurred during the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth climate catastrophe. The lethally low temperature and exceedingly dim light during the Snowball Earth event would have inhibited Prochlorococcus growth and proliferation, and caused severe population bottlenecks. These bottlenecks are record

SUBMITTER: Zhang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8596011 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature