Photoferrotrophs thrive in an Archean Ocean analogue
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Considerable discussion surrounds the potential role of anoxygenic phototrophic Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria in both the genesis of Banded Iron Formations (BIFs) and early marine productivity. However, anoxygenic phototrophs have yet to be identified in modern environments with comparable chemistry and physical structure to the ancient Fe(II)-rich (ferruginous) oceans from which BIFs deposited. Lake Matano, Indonesia, the eighth deepest lake in the world, is such an environment. Here, sulfate is scarce (<20 micromol x liter(-1)), and it is completely removed by sulfate reduction within the deep, Fe(II)-rich chemocline. The sulfide produced is efficiently scavenged by the formation and precipitation of FeS, thereby maintaining very low sulfide concentrations within the chemocline and the deep ferruginous bottom waters. Low productivity in the surface water allows sunlight to penetrate to the >100-m-deep chemocline. Within this sulfide-poor, Fe(II)-rich, illuminated chemocline, we find a populous assemblage of anoxygenic phototrophic green sulfur bacteria (GSB). These GSB represent a large component of the Lake Matano phototrophic community, and bacteriochlorophyll e, a pigment produced by low-light-adapted GSB, is nearly as abundant as chlorophyll a in the lake's euphotic surface waters. The dearth of sulfide in the chemocline requires that the GSB are sustained by phototrophic oxidation of Fe(II), which is in abundant supply. By analogy, we propose that similar microbial communities, including populations of sulfate reducers and photoferrotrophic GSB, likely populated the chemoclines of ancient ferruginous oceans, driving the genesis of BIFs and fueling early marine productivity.
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Lake Matano is proposed to be an analogue for the Archaean ocean.
“an environment proposed to be an analogue for the Archaean ocean (Crowe et al., 2008)”
From Iron formations: A global record of Neoarchaean to Palaeoproterozoic environmental history (2017) · cites this paper as Crowe et al., 2008
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Crowe, S. A., Jones, C., Katsev, S., Magen, C., O'Neill, A. H., Sturm, A., Canfield, D. E., Haffner, G. D., Mucci, A., Sundby, B., & Fowle, D. A.
- Affiliations
- McGill University (CA)
- University of Southern Denmark (DK)
- University of Minnesota, Duluth (US)
- Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada N9B 3P4;
- University of Kansas (US)
- Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (CA)
- Université du Québec à Rimouski (CA)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2008-10-14
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 41
- Pages
- 15938-15943
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2572968
- OpenAlex
- W1992890945
- Cited by
- 264
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2025: 13 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 10.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Scholarship at UWindsor (University of Windsor) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- eScholarship@McGill (McGill) (submittedVersion)
- Scholarship at UWindsor (University of Windsor) (submittedVersion)
- University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Research Foundation
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Keywords
- green sulfur bacteria, anoxygenic phototrophy, ferruginous ocean, Archean ocean, banded iron formations, Lake Matano, chemocline, Fe(II) oxidation, sulfate reduction, bacteriochlorophyll e
- MeSH terms
- Anaerobiosis, Archaea, Environment, Indonesia, Iron, Light, Marine Biology, Molecular Sequence Data, Oxidation-Reduction, Sulfides, Sunlight, Water Microbiology, Chlorobi
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