2008/05/22 by Paul G. Falkowski, Tom Fenchel, Edward F. DeLong · 10 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms #Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology #Microbial Fuel Cells and Bioremediation
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1153213
openalex publication_date 2008/05/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Virtually all nonequilibrium electron transfers on Earth are driven by a set of nanobiological machines composed largely of multimeric protein complexes associated with a small number of prosthetic groups. These machines evolved exclusively in microbes early in our planet's history yet, despite their antiquity, are highly conserved. Hence, although there is enormous genetic diversity in nature, there remains a relatively stable set of core genes coding for the major redox reactions essential for life and biogeochemical cycles. These genes created and coevolved with biogeochemical cycles and were passed from microbe to microbe primarily by horizontal gene transfer. A major challenge in the coming decades is to understand how these machines evolved, how they work, and the processes that control their activity on both molecular and planetary scales.