Light-driven anaerobic microbial oxidation of manganese
Abstract
Oxygenic photosynthesis supplies organic carbon to the modern biosphere, but it is uncertain when this metabolism originated. It has previously been proposed 1,2 that photosynthetic reaction centres capable of splitting water arose by about 3 billion years ago on the basis of the inferred presence of manganese oxides in Archaean sedimentary rocks. However, this assumes that manganese oxides can be produced only in the presence of molecular oxygen 3, reactive oxygen species 4,5 or by high-potential photosynthetic reaction centres 6,7. Here we show that communities of anoxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms biomineralize manganese oxides in the absence of molecular oxygen and high-potential photosynthetic reaction centres. Microbial oxidation of Mn(II) under strictly anaerobic conditions during the Archaean eon would have produced geochemical signals identical to those used to date the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis before the Great Oxidation Event 1,2. This light-dependent process may also produce manganese oxides in the photic zones of modern anoxic water bodies and sediments.
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The interpretation of sediment manganese enrichments is robust regardless of the possibility of oxygen-free manganese oxidation through UV photooxidation, photosynthetic oxidation, or oxidation with elemental sulfur, given rapid manganese reduction under anoxic conditions.
“This interpretation of sediment manganese enrichments is robust regardless of the possibility of oxygen-free manganese oxidation-through UV photooxidation (Anbar & Holland 1992), photosynthetic oxidation ( Johnson et al. 2013), or oxidation with elemental sulfur (Daye et al. 2019)-given rapid manganese reduction under anoxic conditions (e.g., Busigny et al. 2014).”
From The History of Ocean Oxygenation (2022) · cites this paper as Daye et al. 2019
Cites
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Self-citationEvidence for oxygenic photosynthesis half a billion years before the Great Oxidation Event
Planavsky, N. J., Asael, D., Hofmann, A., Reinhard, C. T., Lalonde, S. V., Knudsen, A., Wang, X., Ossa Ossa, F., Pecoits, E., Smith, A. J. B., et al. (2014) · Nature Geoscience · doi:10.1038/ngeo2122 · Cited by 615 · see citing works
Self-citationManganese-oxidizing photosynthesis before the rise of cyanobacteria
Johnson, J. E., Webb, S. M., Thomas, K., Ono, S., Kirschvink, J. L., & Fischer, W. W. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1305530110 · Cited by 238 · see citing works
Effect of electron donors on the fractionation of sulfur isotopes by a marine Desulfovibrio sp
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Manganese oxide shuttling in pre-GOE oceans – evidence from molybdenum and iron isotopes
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The History of Ocean Oxygenation
Reinhard, C. T., & Planavsky, N. J. (2022) · Annual Review of Marine Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-marine-031721-104005 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Smith, A. J. B., Beukes, N. J., Cochrane, J. M., & Gutzmer, J. (2023) · South African Journal of Geology · doi:10.25131/sajg.126.0005 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Daye, M., Klepac-Ceraj, V., Pajusalu, M., Rowland, S., Farrell-Sherman, A., Beukes, N., Tamura, N., Fournier, G., & Bosak, T.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Wellesley College (US)
- University of Johannesburg (ZA)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Corresponding author
- Daye, Mirna
- Bosak, Tanja
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2019-12-04
- Volume
- 576
- Issue
- 7786
- Pages
- 311-314
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2993348306
- Cited by
- 145
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 12.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
- Keywords
- manganese oxide, anoxygenic photosynthesis, Great Oxidation Event, Mn(II) oxidation, anoxic sediments
- MeSH terms
- Anaerobiosis, Light, Manganese, Oxidation-Reduction, X-Ray Diffraction, Biofilms, Lakes
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