ArticleeLife2016
Protein sequences bound to mineral surfaces persist into deep time.
Article in eLife, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 98 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
98 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 270 citations in OpenAlex.
- Old Soil Organic Matter Has a Low Carbon:Nitrogen Ratio-A Global Meta-Analysis AboutGlobal change biology · 2026Pooled it
- Palaeoproteomic investigation of archaeological sediments associated with ochre use in the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2026Article
- Beyond animal glue: Paleoproteomic analysis of paint binders and adhesives in ancient Egypt.Science advances · 2026Article
- Assessing the Potential of Ancient Protein Sequences in the Study of Hominid Evolution.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Deep-time preservation of amino acids in mammalian fossil tooth enamel.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Sex Identification and Species Confirmation in Modern and Archeological Caprine Enamel.Journal of proteome research · 2025Article
- Bone Adhered Sediments as a Source of Target and Environmental DNA and Proteins.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
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- Reconstructing medieval diets through the integration of stable isotope and proteomic analyses from two European burial sites.Scientific reports · 2025Article
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- Comparing Protein Stability in Modern and Ancient Sabkha Environments: Implications for Molecular Remnants on Ancient Mars.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Advancing non-destructive sex determination on human dental enamel using Raman spectroscopy.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Role of Electron Spin, Chirality, and Charge Dynamics in Promoting the Persistence of Nascent Nucleic Acid-Peptide Complexes.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2025Article
- Classification of Collagens via Peptide Ambiguation, in a Paleoproteomic LC-MS/MS-Based Taxonomic Pipeline.Journal of proteome research · 2025Article
- Taphonomic variation in vascular remains from Mesozoic non-avian dinosaurs.Scientific reports · 2025Article
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- Paleoproteomics sheds light on million-year-old fossils.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2025Article
- Clothomics: a practical guide to understand the opportunities and challenges of omics-based methods in archaeological cloth research.NPJ heritage science · 2025Review
- Automated High-Throughput Biological Sex Identification from Archeological Human Dental Enamel Using Targeted Proteomics.Journal of proteome research · 2024Article
38 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
36 authors at 11 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Proteins persist longer in the fossil record than DNA, but the longevity, survival mechanisms and substrates remain contested. Here, we demonstrate the role of mineral binding in preserving the protein sequence in ostrich (Struthionidae) eggshell, including from the palaeontological sites of Laetoli (3.8 Ma) and Olduvai Gorge (1.3 Ma) in Tanzania. By tracking protein diagenesis back in time we find consistent patterns of preservation, demonstrating authenticity of the surviving sequences. Molecular dynamics simulations of struthiocalcin-1 and -2, the dominant proteins within the eggshell, reveal that distinct domains bind to the mineral surface. It is the domain with the strongest calculated binding energy to the calcite surface that is selectively preserved. Thermal age calculations demonstrate that the Laetoli and Olduvai peptides are 50 times older than any previously authenticated sequence (equivalent to ~16 Ma at a constant 10°C).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.