Every plant cell is the product of a biological merger billions of years ago. Chloroplasts are key structures in plants and algae that capture sunlight, but originally they were free-living […]
chloroplast
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Plant Biology, Press Release
How Proteins Crucial To Photosynthesis On Earth Are Arranged
Research led by scientists at Washington State University has revealed insights on how plants form a microscopic landscape of proteins crucial to photosynthesis, the basis of Earth’s food and energy […]
Posted inBiophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Press Release, Space Agriculture
Researchers Identify Protein That Evolved To Enable Photosynthesis In Land Plants
Evolutionary plant biologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) have identified a protein that evolved approximately 500 million years ago, enabling plants to convert light into energy through […]
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Machine Learning Helps Construct An Evolutionary Timeline Of Bacteria
University of Queensland scientists have helped to construct a detailed timeline for bacterial evolution, suggesting some bacteria used oxygen long before evolving the ability to produce it through photosynthesis.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
A Novel Quinone Biosynthetic Pathway Illuminates The Evolution Of Aerobic Metabolism
The dominant organisms in modern oxic ecosystems rely on respiratory quinones with high redox potential (HPQs) for electron transport in aerobic respiration and photosynthesis. The diversification of quinones, from low […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
New Insight Into Chloroplast Evolution
One of the most momentous events in the history of life involved endosymbiosis — a process by which one organism engulfed another and, instead of ingesting it, incorporated its DNA […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
The Nitroplast Revealed: A Nitrogen-fixing Organelle In A Marine Alga
A nitrogen-fixing bacterial endosymbiont of marine algae is evolving into a nitrogen-fixing organelle, or nitroplast, according to a new study, thereby expanding a function that was thought to be exclusively […]
Posted inBiophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Press Release
The First Known Nitrogen-fixing Organelle
Modern biology textbooks assert that only bacteria can take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into a form that is usable for life. Plants that fix nitrogen, such as […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Press Release
Photosynthetic Secrets Come To Light
Secrets of photosynthesis have been discovered at atomic level, shedding important new light on this plant super-power that greened the earth more than a billion years ago.
![Images of microfossil specimens of Navifusa majensis. (Demoulin et al., Nature, 2024) [L] one of the microfossils with stacks of thylakoids highlighted using yellow bars [R] magnification of the end of the cell.](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/FossilCellsProvide.png?resize=1200%2C838&ssl=1)
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Status Report
Fossil Cells Provide Evidence Of Early Oxygenic Photosynthesis On Earth
Today oxygenic photosynthesis is unique to cyanobacteria and their plastid relatives within eukaryotes. Although its origin before the Great Oxidation Event is still debated 1,2,3,4, the accumulation of O2 profoundly […]