生物
地质记录
基因组
天体生物学
进化生物学
计算生物学
生物标志物
基因组学
生态学
古生物学
基因
遗传学
作者
Roger E. Summons,Paula V. Welander,David A. Gold
标识
DOI:10.1038/s41579-021-00636-2
摘要
Fossilized lipids preserved in sedimentary rocks offer singular insights into the Earth's palaeobiology. These 'biomarkers' encode information pertaining to the oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans, transitions in ocean plankton, the greening of continents, mass extinctions and climate change. Historically, biomarker interpretations relied on inventories of lipids present in extant microorganisms and counterparts in natural environments. However, progress has been impeded because only a small fraction of the Earth's microorganisms can be cultured, many environmentally significant microorganisms from the past no longer exist and there are gaping holes in knowledge concerning lipid biosynthesis. The revolution in genomics and bioinformatics has provided new tools to expand our understanding of lipid biomarkers, their biosynthetic pathways and distributions in nature. In this Review, we explore how preserved organic molecules provide a unique perspective on the history of the Earth's microbial life. We discuss how advances in molecular biology have helped elucidate biomarker origins and afforded more robust interpretations of fossil lipids and how the rock record provides vital calibration points for molecular clocks. Such studies are open to further exploitation with the expansion of sequenced microbial genomes in accessible databases.
科研通智能强力驱动
Strongly Powered by AbleSci AI