Overview

• Researchers found evidence that some bacteria adapted to use oxygen nearly 900 million years before the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), challenging previous assumptions about oxygen adaptation timelines.
• The study suggests that early oxygen use may have facilitated the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, a key driver of the GOE.
• A combination of genomic analysis, geological records, and machine learning was used to reconstruct bacterial evolutionary timelines and oxygen adaptation patterns.
• Bayesian modeling revealed that aerobic metabolism likely emerged in bacterial lineages well before atmospheric oxygen levels significantly rose during the GOE.
• The findings provide a framework for linking microbial traits to Earth's geochemical history, offering new insights into the co-evolution of life and the planet.