Review and analysis of scientific research and theory bearing on knowledge of Earth’s protogeobiosphere, origins and evolution of protobiont complexity, and emergence of life in the cosmos.

 

Boyd, E., M. Amenabar, S. Poudel, A. Templeton 2020. Bioenergetic constraints on the origin of autotrophic metabolism. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 378:20191051.

 

Dos Santos, P., D. Dean 2008. A newly discovered role for iron-sulfur clusters. PNAS 105 (33): 11589-11590.

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Dupont, C., A. Butcher, R. Valas, P. Bourne, G. Anolles 2010. History of biological metal utilization inferred through phylogenomic analysis of protein structures. PNAS 107(23):10567-10572.

 

Huwiler, S., C. Loffler, S. Anselmann, H. Stark, M. Bergen, J. Flechsler, R. Rachel, M. Boll 2019. One-megadalton metalloenzyme complex in Geobacter metallireducens involved in benzene ring reduction beyond the biological redox window. PNAS 116(6): 2259-2264.

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Jordan, S. et al. 2021. Spontaneous assembly of redox-active iron-sulfur
clusters at low concentrations of cysteine. Nature Communications 12: 5925.

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Li, Y., N. Kitadai & R. Nakamura 2018. Chemical diversity of metal sulfide minerals and its implications for the origin of life. Life 8: 8040046.

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Moore, E., B. Jelen, D. Giovannelli, H. Raanan, P. Falkowski 2017. Metal availability and the expanding network of microbial metabolisms in the Archaean eon. Nature Geoscience 10: 629-636.

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Muchowska, K.B. et al. 2017. Metals promote sequences of the reverse Krebs cycle. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 1: 1716–1721.

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Peters, J.W., G.J. Schut, E.S. Boyd, D.W. Mulder, E.M. Shepard, J.B. Broderick, P.W. King, M.W.W. Adams 2015. [FeFe]- and [NiFe]-hydrogenase diversity, mechanism, and maturation. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1853:1350-1369.

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Raanan, H., D.H. Pike, E.K. Moore, P.G. Falkowski, V. Nanda 2018. Modular origins of biological electron transfer chains. PNAS 115(6):1280-1285.

 

Schut, G., E. Boyd, J. Peters, M. Adams 2013. The modular respiratory complexes involved in hydrogen and sulfur metabolism by heterotrophic hyperthermophilic archaea and their evolutionary implications. FEMS Microbiol Rev 37: (2):182-203.

 

Sengupta, S., R. Nechushtai, P. Jennings, J. Onuchic, P. Padilla, R. Azad, R. Mittler. 2018. Phylogenetic analysis of the CDGSH iron-sulfur binding domain reveals its ancient origin. Nature Sci Rep 8:4840.

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