ArticleNature ecology & evolution2018
Horizontal gene transfer constrains the timing of methanogen evolution.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- How low can they go? Aerobic respiration by microorganisms under apparent anoxia.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Methanogens: vital but threatened members of the human microbiome?Trends in microbiology · 2026Review
- Abiotic sources of fixed nitrogen sustained early ecosystems for several hundred million years after the origin of life.Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- Genomic adaptation strategies to habitat switching in Korarchaeota.Science advances · 2026Article
- Exo-Geoscience Perspectives Beyond Habitability.Space science reviews · 2026Review
- Key role of hydrogen in regulating hydrogenases and the reductive TCA cycle in a thermophilic, autotrophic sulfur-reducing bacterium.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Cultivation of Methanonezhaarchaeia, the third class of methanogens within the phylum Thermoproteota.Science advances · 2025Article
- Horizontal transfer of matrix metalloproteinase genes links early animal and microbial evolution.Biology direct · 2025Article
- The emergence of metabolisms through Earth history and implications for biospheric evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Archaeal protein containing domain of unknown function 2193 undergoes oligomeric reconfiguration upon iron-sulfur cluster binding.FEBS letters · 2025Article
- Oxidative adaptations in prokaryotes imply the oxygenic photosynthesis before crown-groupPNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Microbial ecology of serpentinite-hosted ecosystems.The ISME journal · 2025Review
- Purifying selection and low recombination facilitated sequential colonization of benthic and pelagic coastal ocean by ammonia-oxidizing archaea.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Alternative sources of molybdenum for Methanococcus maripaludis and their implication for the evolution of molybdoenzymes.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Challenges in Assembling the Dated Tree of Life.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- A New View of the Last Universal Common Ancestor.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Article
- Stem Life: A Framework for Understanding the Prebiotic-Biotic Transition.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Article
- Co-evolution of early Earth environments and microbial life.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2024Review
- Oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere induced metabolic and ecologic transformations recorded in the Lomagundi-Jatuli carbon isotopic excursion.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Microbial methanogenesis may have been a major component of Earth's carbon cycle during the Archaean eon, generating a methane greenhouse that increased global temperatures enough for a liquid hydrosphere, despite the Sun's lower luminosity at the time. Evaluation of potential solutions to the 'faint young Sun' hypothesis by determining the age of microbial methanogenesis has been limited by ambiguous geochemical evidence and the absence of a diagnostic fossil record. To overcome these challenges, we use a temporal constraint: a horizontal gene transfer event from within archaeal methanogens to the ancestor of Cyanobacteria, one of the few microbial clades with recognized crown-group fossils. Results of molecular clock analyses calibrated by this horizontal-gene-transfer-propagated constraint show methanogens diverging within Euryarchaeota no later than 3.51 billion years ago, with methanogenesis itself probably evolving earlier. This timing provides independent support for scenarios wherein microbial methane production was important in maintaining temperatures on the early Earth.
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