evolution – Page 5 – My WordPress Site

The Oxygen Valve on Hydrogen

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Oxygen Valve on Hydrogen Escape Since the Great Oxidation Event

by Keith CowingDecember 16, 2025December 16, 2025

Processes occurring in the protocell at each time step. Continuous arrows show polymers being produced, segmented arrows show peptide catalysis of CO2 fixation and templated polymerisation, and dotted arrows indicate RNA acting as templates for copying and translation. Note that sequences shown here are illustrative, and the model only keeps track of hydrophobicity and length of sequences, and not sequence order. -- biorxiv.org

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life

First Growth, Then Information: The Path To Genetic Heredity In Protocells

by Keith CowingDecember 15, 2025December 15, 2025

Ribosome biogenesis processes and sets of RBFs in bacteria. a)Schematic view of multi-step ribosome biogenesis including the list of RBFs and tertiary structure of RPs, 70S, 50S and 30S subunits (PDB code: 4YBB, 5UYN, 6ENF, and 1RQU). The structure was visualized using CueMol. b) Boxplot representation of the number of BFs across different phyla in bacteria. Firmicutes are divided into seven groups in the AnnoTree database. * indicates fau-1, recently designated as a gene of RNase W (Vayssières et al. 2024). ** indicates a P-value of ≤ 0.01. -- Molecular Biology and Evolution

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics

Evolutionary Flexibility of Ribosome Biogenesis in Bacteria

by Keith CowingDecember 11, 2025December 10, 2025

Toward Process-Driven Research in Astrobiology - Grok via Astrobiology.com

Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life

Toward Process-Driven Research in Astrobiology: Stepping Away from the Binary Biogenicity Versus Abiogenicity Approach

by Keith CowingDecember 10, 2025December 10, 2025

From the prebiotic soup to the creation of biodiversity.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life

The Origin Of Life And Cellular Systems: A Continuum From Prebiotic Chemistry To Biodiversity

by Keith CowingDecember 8, 2025December 8, 2025

Complex Life Developed Earlier Than Previously Thought

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life

Complex Life Developed Earlier Than Previously Thought, Nature Study Reveals

by Keith CowingDecember 3, 2025December 3, 2025

A total of 154 genomes were analysed to infer HGs and reconstruct ancestral states. Each bar chart represents one terrestrial event node and its three immediate ancestors. For each node, five categories of HGs are quantified: novel, novel core, expanded, contracted and lost. The y axis indicates the number of HGs in each category of each clade. Organism silhouettes (sourced from phylopic.org and the authors, released under public domain dedication (CC0 1.0 Universal)) represent 11 terrestrial events. -- Nature

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Origin & Evolution of Life, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

How Did Earth’s Animal Life Transition From Aquatic To Terrestrial Environments?

by Keith CowingNovember 22, 2025November 22, 2025

This figure presents a modern tree of Life, highlighting eukaryotes (organisms with complex cells) based on genome-scale analyses from Valt et al. (2025). The newly identified and ancient supergroup Disparia is shown alongside other major branches, including several formerly unplaced protist lineages and the new organism Solarion arienae. Colored dots mark the positions of well-known complex multicellular groups such as animals, plants, fungi, and seaweeds, providing familiar reference points on the tree. Built using large gene datasets and advanced phylogenomic tools (including PhyloFisher, originally developed in the Brown Lab), this tree illustrates how new genomic discoveries continue to reshape our understanding of early eukaryotic evolution. CREDIT Matthew W. Brown, Ph.D.

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Origin & Evolution of Life

New Clues To Origins Of Complex Life Revealed

by Keith CowingNovember 21, 2025November 21, 2025

Aggregated three-dimensional py–GC–MS data for samples in each of our nine categories: modern animals; modern plants (non-photosynthetic); modern plants (photosynthetic); fossil microbes (photosynthetic); fossil coal, wood, oil shale; fossil animals; modern fungi; carbonaceous meteorites; and synthetic samples. These graphs display peak intensities (vertical scale, normalized to the highest peak intensity in each category) for 3,240 elution time bins or “scans” (right-hand scale) and their mass spectra over 150 m/z bins (left-hand scale).

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Tricorders & Sensors

Organic Geochemical Evidence For Life In Archean Rocks Identified By Pyrolysis–GC–MS and Supervised Machine Learning

by Keith CowingNovember 20, 2025November 20, 2025

The diversity of unicellular eukaryotes covered in the study, with their nucleus (blue) and microtubule cytoskeleton (magenta) stained. These organisms are so distantly related to each other as they are from us or plants. Credit Omaya Dudin, University of Geneva

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life

Single-celled Organisms Found To Have A More Complex DNA Epigenetic Code Than Multicellular Life

by Keith CowingNovember 20, 2025November 20, 2025