ReviewOpen biology2019
Thinking twice about the evolution of photosynthesis.
Review in Open biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring thylakoid emergence: evolution of membrane biogenesis and photosystem II assembly in early-diverging cyanobacteria.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Exploring Thylakoid Emergence: Evolution of Membrane Biogenesis and Photosystem II assembly in early-diverging Cyanobacteria.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The hydrogen, methane and ammonia biosphere on early Earth.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Photosynthesis Has Been Established Only Once-Evolution of Photosynthetic Reaction Center Proteins and Bacteriochlorophyll Biosynthesis.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Article
- Iron binding before iron limitation: siderophore synthesis arose well before iron became a limiting element.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Chlorophyllide a Oxygenase (CAO) Gene Duplication Across the Viridiplantae.Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Article
- What the earliest evidence for life tells us about the early evolution of the biosphere.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Boundaries of photosynthesis: adaptations of carbon fixation in extreme environments.FEBS open bio · 2025Review
- Non-Respiratory Extracellular Electron Transfer Competes with Nitrogenase for Electrons in Rhodopseudomonas Palustris.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Article
- Diversity and abundance of filamentous and non-filamentous "Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Exploring the Origins and Evolution of Oxygenic and Anoxygenic Photosynthesis in Deeply Branched Cyanobacteriota.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- What We Are Learning from the Diverse Structures of the Homodimeric Type I Reaction Center-Photosystems of Anoxygenic Phototropic Bacteria.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Article
- Solar energy conversion by photosystem II: principles and structures.Photosynthesis research · 2023Review
- Cryo-EM structure of the whole photosynthetic reaction center apparatus from the green sulfur bacteriumProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Molecular diversity and evolution of far-red light-acclimated photosystem I.Frontiers in plant science · 2023Article
- Structure of the Acidobacteria homodimeric reaction center bound with cytochrome c.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Genes encoding the photosystem II proteins are under purifying selection: an insight into the early evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.Photosynthesis research · 2022Article
- Phylogenomic Evidence for the Origin of Obligate Anaerobic Anammox Bacteria Around the Great Oxidation Event.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sam Granick opened his seminal 1957 paper titled 'Speculations on the origins and evolution of photosynthesis' with the assertion that there is a constant urge in human beings to seek beginnings (I concur). This urge has led to an incessant stream of speculative ideas and debates on the evolution of photosynthesis that started in the first half of the twentieth century and shows no signs of abating. Some of these speculative ideas have become commonplace, are taken as fact, but find little support. Here, I review and scrutinize three widely accepted ideas that underpin the current study of the evolution of photosynthesis: first, that the photochemical reaction centres used in anoxygenic photosynthesis are more primitive than those in oxygenic photosynthesis; second, that the probability of acquiring photosynthesis via horizontal gene transfer is greater than the probability of losing photosynthesis; and third, and most important, that the origin of anoxygenic photosynthesis pre-dates the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis. I shall attempt to demonstrate that these three ideas are often grounded in incorrect assumptions built on more assumptions with no experimental or observational support. I hope that this brief review will not only serve as a cautionary tale but also that it will open new avenues of research aimed at disentangling the complex evolution of photosynthesis and its impact on the early history of life and the planet.
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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.