Saturday, January 19, 2013

Great Oxidation Event: More oxygen through multicellularity

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/uoz-goe011713.php

Public release date: 17-Jan-2013
Contact: Dr. Bettina Schirrmeister
University of Zurich

Cyanobacteria belong to the Earth's oldest organisms. They are still present today in oceans and waters and even in hot springs. By producing oxygen and evolving into multicellular forms, they played a key role in the emergence of organisms that breathe oxygen. This has, now, been demonstrated by a team of scientists under the supervision and instruction of evolutionary biologists from the University of Zurich. According to their studies, cyanobacteria developed multicellularity around one billion years earlier than eukaryotes – cells with one true nucleus. At almost the same time as multicellular cyanobacteria appeared, a process of oxygenation began in the oceans and in the Earth's atmosphere.

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