Earliest Photic Zone Niches Probed by Ancestral Microbial Rhodopsins.

ABSTRACT: For billions of years, life has continuously adapted to dynamic physical conditions near the Earth's surface. Fossils and other preserved biosignatures in the paleontological record are the most direct evidence for reconstructing the broad historical contours of this adaptive interplay. However, biosignatures dating to Earth's earliest history are exceedingly rare. Here, we combine phylogenetic inference of primordial rhodopsin proteins with modeled spectral features of the Precambrian Earth environment to reconstruct the paleobiological history of this essential family of photoactive transmembrane proteins. Our results suggest that ancestral microbial rhodopsins likely acted as light-driven proton pumps and were spectrally tuned toward the absorption of green light, which would have enabl

SUBMITTER: Sephus CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9117797 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature