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Horizontal gene transfer constrains the timing of methanogen evolution
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Abstract
Microbial methanogenesis may have been a major component of Earth's carbon cycle during the Archaean eon, generating a methane greenhouse that increased global temperatures enough for a liquid hydrosphere, despite the Sun's lower luminosity at the time. Evaluation of potential solutions to the 'faint young Sun' hypothesis by determining the age of microbial methanogenesis has been limited by ambiguous geochemical evidence and the absence of a diagnostic fossil record. To overcome these challenges, we use a temporal constraint: a horizontal gene transfer event from within archaeal methanogens to the ancestor of Cyanobacteria, one of the few microbial clades with recognized crown-group fossils. Results of molecular clock analyses calibrated by this horizontal-gene-transfer-propagated constraint show methanogens diverging within Euryarchaeota no later than 3.51 billion years ago, with methanogenesis itself probably evolving earlier. This timing provides independent support for scenarios wherein microbial methane production was important in maintaining temperatures on the early Earth.
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“The Archean lower atmosphere is unlikely to have been H2-rich given the antiquity of methanogens (23, 51, 197), some of which convert H2 into methane through a net reaction”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
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“An origin of life during the period ~4.3 to 4.0 Ga ago is consistent with phylogenetic inferences [e.g., (23)].”
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“The Archean lower atmosphere is unlikely to have been H2-rich given the antiquity of methanogens (23, 51, 197), some of which convert H2 into methane through a net reaction”
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“Phylogenetically, methanogens date back to >3.5 Ga ago (23).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Wolfe, J. M., & Fournier, G. P.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wolfe, Joanna M.
- Venue
- Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Published
- 2018-04-02
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 897-903
- ISSN
- 2397-334X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2794637696
- Cited by
- 160
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 16
- FWCI
- 7.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1615426)
- Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Protist diversity and phylogeny
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Keywords
- horizontal gene transfer, methanogenesis, methanogenic archaea, archaea, cyanobacteria, molecular clock, divergence time estimation, Euryarchaeota, molecular phylogeny
- MeSH terms
- Cyanobacteria, Biological Evolution, Methane, Phylogeny, Temperature, Evolution, Planetary, Euryarchaeota, Gene Transfer, Horizontal
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