Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (18) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Brocks, J. J. Articles by Pearson, A. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Building the Biomarker Tree of Life

Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia, jochen.brocks@anu.edu.au

Ann Pearson

Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, U.S.A., pearson@eps.harvard.edu

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

	INTRODUCTION

 
It is the great challenge of geomicrobiology to study microorganisms in the context of their environments, both in Earth’s distant past and in the present. Planet Earth and its biosphere have evolved together, and a chronicle of Earth’s ecosystems and their geochemical cycles is recorded in sedimentary rocks spanning billions of years. A relatively new and very powerful approach to read these subtle microbial and environmental signatures in ancient rocks is the study of molecular fossils, or biomarkers, within the context of the biochemistry and phylogeny of their origins.

Biomarkers are organic compounds (primarily lipids) that have particular biosynthetic origins and can be preserved in sediments and sedimentary rocks. The most valuable biomarkers are taxonomically specific, i.e., they can be assigned to a defined group of organisms, and are resistant to degradation. Reading the biomarker signatures in rocks can give information about the ancient record of anoxic conditions in the water column (e.g., Summons and Powell 1986), the intensity of UV radiation penetrating lakes (Leavitt et al. 1997), hypersalinity in evaporitic environments (Grice et al. 1998), and the function of microbial communities at methane seeps (Hinrichs et al. 1999). Biomarkers have helped to reconstruct the first appearance of major groups of organisms (e.g., McCaffrey et al. 1994; Moldowan et al. 1994; Moldowan and Talyzina 1998; Brocks et al. 2005), elucidate events of global climate change (e.g., Brassell et al. 1986), record major perturbations and reorganization of geochemical cycles (e.g., Logan et al. 1995; Kuypers et al. 1999) and document catastrophic losses in biodiversity (e.g., Grice et al. 2005). They are even used as tools to help in the discovery of major new petroleum reservoirs (for a review see Peters et al. 2004). The field . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Buick When did oxygenic photosynthesis evolve? Phil Trans R Soc B, August 27, 2008; 363(1504): 2731 - 2743. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. B. Kodner, R. E. Summons, A. Pearson, N. King, and A. H. Knoll Sterols in a unicellular relative of the metazoans PNAS, July 22, 2008; 105(29): 9897 - 9902. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. E. Rashby, A. L. Sessions, R. E. Summons, and D. K. Newman Biosynthesis of 2-methylbacteriohopanepolyols by an anoxygenic phototroph PNAS, September 18, 2007; 104(38): 15099 - 15104. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. MARYNOWSKI and P. FILIPIAK Water column euxinia and wildfire evidence during deposition of the Upper Famennian Hangenberg event horizon from the Holy Cross Mountains (central Poland) Geological Magazine, May 1, 2007; 144(3): 569 - 595. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. R. Croal, Y. Jiao, and D. K. Newman The fox Operon from Rhodobacter Strain SW2 Promotes Phototrophic Fe(II) Oxidation in Rhodobacter capsulatus SB1003 J. Bacteriol., March 1, 2007; 189(5): 1774 - 1782. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. F. Banfield, G. W. Tyson, E. E. Allen, and R. J. Whitaker The Search for a Molecular-Level Understanding of the Processes that Underpin the Earth's Biogeochemical Cycles Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 59(1): 1 - 7. [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. K. Newman and J. A. Gralnick What Genetics Offers Geobiology Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 59(1): 9 - 26. [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. E. Nelson and B. Methe Metabolism and Genomics: Adventures Derived From Complete Genome Sequencing Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 59(1): 279 - 294. [Full Text] [PDF]