ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2024
Iron: Life's primeval transition metal.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- A frameshift mutation drives divergent biosynthesis of metallophores inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The chemistry of habitable oceans in the Solar system.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Coagulation pretreatment could deteriorate reverse osmosis membrane fouling.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Review
- Fifty shades of iron: Unorthodox mechanisms of iron acquisition and utilization in blood-stage Plasmodium parasites.PLoS pathogens · 2026Review
- Influence of Rare Earth Elements on Prebiotic Reaction Networks Resembling the Biologically Relevant Krebs Cycle.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- A window into transition metal availability in early palaeoproterozoic seawater.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Onset of persistent surface ocean oxygenation during the Great Oxidation Event.Nature communications · 2025Article
- FeNature communications · 2025Article
- Ferroptosis and cancer: when iron turns against tumors.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2025Review
- Significant impacts of metal ions from ancient oceans on nucleoside phosphorylation.BMC chemistry · 2025Article
- Commensal resilience: ancient ecological lessons for the modern microbiota.Infection and immunity · 2025Review
- Nanometric and Hydrophobic Green Rust Minerals upon Exposure to Amino Acids and Nickel as Prerequisites for a Primitive Chemiosmosis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Metals in Motion: Understanding Labile Metal Pools in Bacteria.Biochemistry · 2025Review
- Iron and Cell Death.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Modern life requires many different metal ions, which enable diverse biochemical functions. It is commonly assumed that metal ions' environmental availabilities controlled the evolution of early life. We argue that evolution can only explore the chemistry that life encounters, and fortuitous chemical interactions between metal ions and biological compounds can only be selected for if they first occur sufficiently frequently. We calculated maximal transition metal ion concentrations in the ancient ocean, determining that the amounts of biologically important transition metal ions were orders of magnitude lower than ferrous iron. Under such conditions, primitive bioligands would predominantly interact with Fe(II). While interactions with other metals in certain environments may have provided evolutionary opportunities, the biochemical capacities of Fe(II), Fe-S clusters, or the plentiful magnesium and calcium could have satisfied all functions needed by early life. Primitive organisms could have used Fe(II) exclusively for their transition metal ion requirements.
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Registered trials
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