Eukaryotic origins and the Proterozoic Earth system: A link between global scale glaciations and eukaryogenesis?

Boyle, Richard

doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.09.001

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…From a more general planetary evolution perspective, it seems likely that the overall decreasing growth temperature across the Asgard phylum was caused by the progressively cooling palaeotemperature trend 6 , 37 . It has been proposed that the emergence of eukaryotes was facilitated by the Great Oxygenation Event (OGE, 2.33 billion years ago) that occurred during the Huronian Glaciation era (2.45–2.2 billion years ago) 19 , 38 – 41 . Glaciation likely caused a general drop in paleoenvironmental temperatures, creating cooler niches that were conducive to eukaryogenesis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of optimal growth temperature in Asgard archaea inferred from the temperature dependence of GDP binding to EF-1A

Lu,

Xia,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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The archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes apparently belonged to the phylum Asgardarchaeota, but the ecology and evolution of Asgard archaea are poorly understood. The optimal GDP-binding temperature of a translation elongation factor (EF-1A or EF-Tu) has been previously shown to correlate with the optimal growth temperature of diverse prokaryotes. Here, we reconstruct ancestral EF-1A sequences and experimentally measure the optimal GDP-binding temperature of EF-1A from ancient and extant Asgard archaea, to infer the evolution of optimal growth temperatures in Asgardarchaeota. Our results suggest that the Asgard ancestor of eukaryotes was a moderate thermophile, with an optimal growth temperature around 53 °C. The origin of eukaryotes appears to coincide with a transition from thermophilic to mesophilic lifestyle during the evolution of Asgard archaea.

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