Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• He, Hongping
• Wu, Xiao
• Xian, Haiyang
• Zhu, Jianxi
• Yang, Yiping
• Lv, Ying
• Li, Yiliang
• Konhauser, Kurt O

Titel

An abiotic source of Archean hydrogen peroxide and oxygen that pre-dates oxygenic photosynthesis

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2021-11, Vol.12 (1), p.6611-9, Article 6611

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis is a pivotal event in Earth's history because the O released fundamentally changed the planet's redox state and facilitated the emergence of multicellular life. An intriguing hypothesis proposes that hydrogen peroxide (H O ) once acted as the electron donor prior to the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, but its abundance during the Archean would have been limited. Here, we report a previously unrecognized abiotic pathway for Archean H O production that involves the abrasion of quartz surfaces and the subsequent generation of surface-bound radicals that can efficiently oxidize H O to H O and O . We propose that in turbulent subaqueous environments, such as rivers, estuaries and deltas, this process could have provided a sufficient H O source that led to the generation of biogenic O , creating an evolutionary impetus for the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis.