Microbial Diversity and Sulfur Cycling in an Early Earth Analogue: From Ancient Novelty to Modern Commonality.

ABSTRACT: Life emerged and diversified in the absence of molecular oxygen. The prevailing anoxia and unique sulfur chemistry in the Paleo-, Meso-, and Neoarchean and early Proterozoic eras may have supported microbial communities that differ from those currently thriving on the earth's surface. Zodletone spring in southwestern Oklahoma represents a unique habitat where spatial sampling could substitute for geological eras namely, from the anoxic, surficial light-exposed sediments simulating a preoxygenated earth to overlaid water column where air exposure simulates oxygen intrusion during the Neoproterozoic era. We document a remarkably diverse microbial community in the anoxic spring sediments, with 340/516 (65.89%) of genomes recovered in a metagenomic survey belonging to 200 bacterial and archaea

SUBMITTER: Hahn CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9040765 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature