Mineral-extracting microorganism could solve early Earth’s nitrogen-fixing mystery
Ancient microorganisms could have extracted vital nitrogen compounds using molybdenum mined from rocks
Nitrogen-fixation – a key step for complex life’s evolution – could have been helped along by ancient bacteria living in shallow water that were able to extract molybdenum from rocks. That’s according to researchers who have demonstrated how this offers a plausible explanation to the paradox of how molybdenum-nitrogenase, the predominant nitrogen-fixing enzyme, could have evolved 3.2 billion years ago when Earth’s supply of dissolved molybdenum was scarce.