Planetary Biology--Paleontological, Geological, and Molecular Histories of Life
@article{Benner2002PlanetaryBG, title={Planetary Biology--Paleontological, Geological, and Molecular Histories of Life}, author={Steven A. Benner and M Daniel Caraco and J. M. Thomson and Eric A. Gaucher}, journal={Science}, year={2002}, volume={296}, pages={864 - 868} }
The history of life on Earth is chronicled in the geological strata, the fossil record, and the genomes of contemporary organisms. When examined together, these records help identify metabolic and regulatory pathways, annotate protein sequences, and identify animal models to develop new drugs, among other features of scientific and biomedical interest. Together, planetary analysis of genome and proteome databases is providing an enhanced understanding of how life interacts with the biosphere…
109 Citations
Molecular paleoscience: systems biology from the past.
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- 2007
The first 20 cases show how paleogenetics can lead to an understanding of the function of biomolecules, analyze changing function, and put meaning to genomic sequences, all in ways that are not possible with traditional molecular biological studies.
Setting the stage: the history, chemistry, and geobiology behind RNA.
- BiologyCold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
- 2012
No community-accepted scientific methods are available today to guide studies on what role RNA played in the origin and early evolution of life on Earth. Further, a definition-theory for life is…
Resurrecting ancient genes: experimental analysis of extinct molecules
- BiologyNature Reviews Genetics
- 2004
Ancient genes can now be reconstructed, expressed and functionally characterized, thanks to improved techniques for inferring and synthesizing ancestral sequences, and offers a powerful new way to empirically test hypotheses about the function of genes from the deep evolutionary past.
The planetary biology of cytochrome P450 aromatases
- BiologyBMC Biology
- 2004
BackgroundJoining a model for the molecular evolution of a protein family to the paleontological and geological records (geobiology), and then to the chemical structures of substrates, products, and…
7. Ancient Fossil Record and Early Evolution (ca. 3.8 to 0.5 Ga)
- Biology
- 2006
Once life appeared, it evolved and diversified. From primitive living entities, an evolutionary path of unknown duration, likely paralleled by the extinction of unsuccessful attempts, led to a last…
Inferring the palaeoenvironment of ancient bacteria on the basis of resurrected proteins
- BiologyNature
- 2003
This study resurrects candidate sequences for elongation factors of the Tu family found at ancient nodes in the bacterial evolutionary tree, and measures their activities as a function of temperature to suggest that the ancient bacteria that hosted these particular genes were thermophiles, and neither hyperthermophiles nor mesophiles.
The timing of eukaryotic evolution: does a relaxed molecular clock reconcile proteins and fossils?
- BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2004
It is shown that, according to 95% credibility intervals, the eukaryotic kingdoms diversified 950-1,259 million years ago (Mya), animals diverged from choanoflagellates 761-957 Mya, and the debated age of the split between protostomes and deuterostomes occurred 642-761 Mya.
Deep phylogeny--how a tree can help characterize early life on Earth.
- Environmental ScienceCold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
- 2010
The Darwinian concept of biological evolution assumes that life on Earth shares a common ancestor. The diversification of this common ancestor through speciation events and vertical transmission of…
Interpretive proteomics--finding biological meaning in genome and proteome databases.
- BiologyAdvances in enzyme regulation
- 2003
Earliest Photic Zone Niches Probed by Ancestral Microbial Rhodopsins
- Environmental Science, BiologybioRxiv
- 2022
The results suggest that ancestral microbial rhodopsins likely acted as light-driven proton pumps and were spectrally tuned toward the absorption of green light, which would have enabled their hosts to occupy depths in a water column or biofilm where UV wavelengths were attenuated.
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