Universität zu Köln

Missbach, Helge, Duda, Jan-Peter ORCID: 0000-0002-8959-097X, van den Kerkhof, Alfons M., Lueders, Volker, Pack, Andreas ORCID: 0000-0002-2618-2768, Reitner, Joachim and Thiel, Volker ORCID: 0000-0003-4758-2784 (2021). Ingredients for microbial life preserved in 3.5 billion-year-old fluid inclusions. Nat. Commun., 12 (1). BERLIN: NATURE RESEARCH. ISSN 2041-1723

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Abstract

It is widely hypothesised that primeval life utilised small organic molecules as sources of carbon and energy. However, the presence of such primordial ingredients in early Earth habitats has not yet been demonstrated. Here we report the existence of indigenous organic molecules and gases in primary fluid inclusions in c. 3.5-billion-year-old barites (Dresser Formation, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia). The compounds identified (e.g., H2S, COS, CS2, CH4, acetic acid, organic (poly-)sulfanes, thiols) may have formed important substrates for purported ancestral sulfur and methanogenic metabolisms. They also include stable building blocks of methyl thioacetate (methanethiol, acetic acid) - a putative key agent in primordial energy metabolism and thus the emergence of life. Delivered by hydrothermal fluids, some of these compounds may have fuelled microbial communities associated with the barite deposits. Our findings demonstrate that early Archaean hydrothermal fluids contained essential primordial ingredients that provided fertile substrates for earliest life on our planet. It is widely hypothesised that primeval life utilized small organic molecules as sources of carbon and energy, however, the presence of such primordial ingredients in early Earth habitats has not yet been demonstrated. Here the authors report the existence of indigenous organic molecules and gases in primary fluid inclusions in c. 3.5- billion-year-old rocks from Western Australia.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Missbach, Helge UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Duda, Jan-Peter UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-8959-097X UNSPECIFIED van den Kerkhof, Alfons M. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Lueders, Volker UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Pack, Andreas UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-2618-2768 UNSPECIFIED Reitner, Joachim UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Thiel, Volker UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0003-4758-2784 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-591355
DOI:	10.1038/s41467-021-21323-z
Journal or Publication Title:	Nat. Commun.
Volume:	12
Number:	1
Date:	2021
Publisher:	NATURE RESEARCH
Place of Publication:	BERLIN
ISSN:	2041-1723
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Multidisciplinary Sciences Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/59135