Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34635851›Full record

ReviewNature reviews. Microbiology2022

Lipid biomarkers: molecular tools for illuminating the history of microbial life.

Roger E Summons, Paula V Welander, David A Gold

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Nature reviews. Microbiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
29citing papers in PubMed
9.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

29 citing papers in PubMed, 106 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Mechanistic insight into radicalNatural product reports · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. A diverse Palaeoproterozoic microbial ecosystem implies early eukaryogenesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Substantial contribution ofISME communications · 2025
    Article
  9. Unusual Genomic and Biochemical Features ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024
    Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Nitrogen and sulfur for phosphorus: Lipidome adaptation of anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacteria in phosphorus-deprived conditions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Roger E SummonsDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. rsummons@mit.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7144-8537
Paula V WelanderDepartment of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9502-6902
David A GoldDepartment of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0135-4022
Massachusetts Institute of Technology · USStanford University · USUniversity of California, Davis · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Fossilized lipids preserved in sedimentary rocks offer singular insights into the Earth's palaeobiology. These 'biomarkers' encode information pertaining to the oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans, transitions in ocean plankton, the greening of continents, mass extinctions and climate change. Historically, biomarker interpretations relied on inventories of lipids present in extant microorganisms and counterparts in natural environments. However, progress has been impeded because only a small fraction of the Earth's microorganisms can be cultured, many environmentally significant microorganisms from the past no longer exist and there are gaping holes in knowledge concerning lipid biosynthesis. The revolution in genomics and bioinformatics has provided new tools to expand our understanding of lipid biomarkers, their biosynthetic pathways and distributions in nature. In this Review, we explore how preserved organic molecules provide a unique perspective on the history of the Earth's microbial life. We discuss how advances in molecular biology have helped elucidate biomarker origins and afforded more robust interpretations of fossil lipids and how the rock record provides vital calibration points for molecular clocks. Such studies are open to further exploitation with the expansion of sequenced microbial genomes in accessible databases.

Indexed as

AnimalsBacteriaBiomarkersEarth, PlanetEcosystemFossilsLipid MetabolismLipidsBiomarkersLipids

Identifiers

PMID34635851
OpenAlexW3207682445

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.