ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2009
Anoxygenic photosynthesis modulated Proterozoic oxygen and sustained Earth's middle age.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 79 papers.
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79 citing papers in PubMed, 328 citations in OpenAlex.
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- A diverse Palaeoproterozoic microbial ecosystem implies early eukaryogenesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Viral activity in lake analogs of anoxic early Earth oceans.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Pyrite stimulates the growth and sulfur oxidation capacity of anoxygenic phototrophic sulfur bacteria in euxinic environments.Science advances · 2025Article
- Herbivory-triggered JA signaling suppresses photosynthesis by inducing photoinhibition in tomato.Plant communications · 2025Article
- Anoxygenic photoautotrophy driven by humus and microplastics in a photosynthetic bacterium.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Exploring the Origins and Evolution of Oxygenic and Anoxygenic Photosynthesis in Deeply Branched Cyanobacteriota.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Late acquisition of the rTCA carbon fixation pathway by Chlorobi.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Recurrent photic zone euxinia limited ocean oxygenation and animal evolution during the Ediacaran.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Isotopic Signatures of Carbon Transfer in a Proterozoic Analogue Microbial Mat.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Metal-rich stars are less suitable for the evolution of life on their planets.Nature communications · 2023Article
- The Transcriptional Repressor PerR Senses Sulfane Sulfur by Cysteine Persulfidation at the Structural ZnAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Viruses of sulfur oxidizing phototrophs encode genes for pigment, carbon, and sulfur metabolisms.Communications earth & environment · 2023Article
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- Seasonal phytoplankton and geochemical shifts in the subsurface chlorophyll maximum layer of a dimictic ferruginous lake.MicrobiologyOpen · 2022Article
- Article
19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Molecular oxygen (O(2)) began to accumulate in the atmosphere and surface ocean ca. 2,400 million years ago (Ma), but the persistent oxygenation of water masses throughout the oceans developed much later, perhaps beginning as recently as 580-550 Ma. For much of the intervening interval, moderately oxic surface waters lay above an oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) that tended toward euxinia (anoxic and sulfidic). Here we illustrate how contributions to primary production by anoxygenic photoautotrophs (including physiologically versatile cyanobacteria) influenced biogeochemical cycling during Earth's middle age, helping to perpetuate our planet's intermediate redox state by tempering O(2) production. Specifically, the ability to generate organic matter (OM) using sulfide as an electron donor enabled a positive biogeochemical feedback that sustained euxinia in the OMZ. On a geologic time scale, pyrite precipitation and burial governed a second feedback that moderated sulfide availability and water column oxygenation. Thus, we argue that the proportional contribution of anoxygenic photosynthesis to overall primary production would have influenced oceanic redox and the Proterozoic O(2) budget. Later Neoproterozoic collapse of widespread euxinia and a concomitant return to ferruginous (anoxic and Fe(2+) rich) subsurface waters set in motion Earth's transition from its prokaryote-dominated middle age, removing a physiological barrier to eukaryotic diversification (sulfide) and establishing, for the first time in Earth's history, complete dominance of oxygenic photosynthesis in the oceans. This paved the way for the further oxygenation of the oceans and atmosphere and, ultimately, the evolution of complex multicellular organisms.
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