ArticleCommunications biology2021
The metabolic network of the last bacterial common ancestor.
Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed.
- Artificial intelligence aided design of peptides with custom secondary structure motifs and reduced amino acid alphabets.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The Evolution of the First Code.Genes · 2026Review
- Bacterial proteome foundation model enhances functional prediction from enzymes to ecological interactions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Evolution and diversity of oxidoreductases involved in redox balance and energy conservation.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Widespread promiscuous alkaline phosphatases underscore ancient microbial phosphite utilization.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Evolutionary Flexibility of Ribosome Biogenesis in Bacteria.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Exploring glycolytic enzymes in disease: potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in neurodegeneration, cancer and parasitic infections.Open biology · 2025Review
- Dormancy in the origin, evolution and persistence of life on Earth.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Evolution of phosphate scouting in the terrestrial biosphere.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Possibilities for Methanogenic and Acetogenic Life in Molecular Clouds.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Volatile Organic Compound Metabolism on Early Earth.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Article
- Protocellular Heme and Iron-Sulfur Clusters.Accounts of chemical research · 2024Review
- Quantitative principles of microbial metabolism shared across scales.Nature microbiology · 2024Review
- Autocatalytic Selection as a Driver for the Origin of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Life on Earth can grow on extraterrestrial organic carbon.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Genome-scale metabolic modelling of extremophiles and its applications in astrobiological environments.Environmental microbiology reports · 2024Review
- AMP-dependent phosphite dehydrogenase, a phosphorylating enzyme in dissimilatory phosphite oxidation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Structure and function analysis of a type III preQThe Journal of biological chemistry · 2023Article
- Life strategies for Aminicenantia in subseafloor oceanic crust.The ISME journal · 2023Article
- Reconstruction of the last bacterial common ancestor from 183 pangenomes reveals a versatile ancient core genome.Genome biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bacteria are the most abundant cells on Earth. They are generally regarded as ancient, but due to striking diversity in their metabolic capacities and widespread lateral gene transfer, the physiology of the first bacteria is unknown. From 1089 reference genomes of bacterial anaerobes, we identified 146 protein families that trace to the last bacterial common ancestor, LBCA, and form the conserved predicted core of its metabolic network, which requires only nine genes to encompass all universal metabolites. Our results indicate that LBCA performed gluconeogenesis towards cell wall synthesis, and had numerous RNA modifications and multifunctional enzymes that permitted life with low gene content. In accordance with recent findings for LUCA and LACA, analyses of thousands of individual gene trees indicate that LBCA was rod-shaped and the first lineage to diverge from the ancestral bacterial stem was most similar to modern Clostridia, followed by other autotrophs that harbor the acetyl-CoA pathway.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.