ArticleScience advances2023
The evolution and spread of sulfur cycling enzymes reflect the redox state of the early Earth.
Article in Science advances, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Small viruses reveal bidirectional evolution between HK97-fold viruses and encapsulins via procapsids.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Sulfur as a central integrator of plant-microbe interactions: from nutrient cycling to immune signalling and microbiome assembly.Journal of experimental botany · 2026Review
- Evolutionary trajectory of microbial sulfur oxidation pathways recapitulates Earth's oxygenation history.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Abiotic sources of fixed nitrogen sustained early ecosystems for several hundred million years after the origin of life.Science advances · 2026Article
- Biological use of molybdenum and tungsten stems back to 3.4 billion years ago.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Sulfur Oxidation by New and Non-Canonical Bacteria in a Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland Treating Domestic Wastewater.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- A hot origin of dissimilatory sulfite reduction catalyzed by DsrAB in the Paleoarchean Era.mLife · 2026Article
- Sulfur disproportionation occurs globally across anoxic habitats and has multiple mechanisms of independent evolutionary origin.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Impact ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Comparative Dynamics Enables Discovery of Embedded Bacterial Ferredoxin Domains in Large Redox Enzymes.Proteins · 2025Article
- Article
- DPANN Archaea and CPR Bacteria: insights into early cellular evolution?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- 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
- The potential for coupled organic and inorganic sulfur cycles across the terrestrial deep subsurface biosphere.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Persistence selection between simulated biogeochemical cycle variants for their distinct effects on the Earth system.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Diversity and ecology of microbial sulfur metabolism.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2025Review
- Cryptic sulfur cycling in the deep biosphere of ferruginous Lake Towuti, Indonesia.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- 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
- Timing the evolution of phosphorus-cycling enzymes through geological time using phylogenomics.Nature communications · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The biogeochemical sulfur cycle plays a central role in fueling microbial metabolisms, regulating the Earth's redox state, and affecting climate. However, geochemical reconstructions of the ancient sulfur cycle are confounded by ambiguous isotopic signals. We use phylogenetic reconciliation to ascertain the timing of ancient sulfur cycling gene events across the tree of life. Our results suggest that metabolisms using sulfide oxidation emerged in the Archean, but those involving thiosulfate emerged only after the Great Oxidation Event. Our data reveal that observed geochemical signatures resulted not from the expansion of a single type of organism but were instead associated with genomic innovation across the biosphere. Moreover, our results provide the first indication of organic sulfur cycling from the Mid-Proterozoic onwards, with implications for climate regulation and atmospheric biosignatures. Overall, our results provide insights into how the biological sulfur cycle evolved in tandem with the redox state of the early Earth.
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.