Project description
Solving Earth’s ancient carbon fixation puzzle
The Earth’s early atmosphere, steeped in CO2 during the Archean Eon, sparked the evolution of microbial life through autotrophic carbon fixation. However, modern environments with lower CO2 levels obscure the ancient metabolic pathways vital for early life. With this in mind, the ERC-funded Archean Park project embarks on a quest to explore subsurface ecosystems rich in CO2. By studying these relics in CO2-abundant settings, researchers anticipate unlocking innovative biochemistry insights with profound implications. This initiative promises to reshape biotechnological and geotechnical landscapes, offering solutions from advanced biomass production to carbon storage. Archean Park not only illuminates the past but also guides the future of microbial evolution and Earth’s carbon cycle.
Objective
The biological conversion of inorganic to organic carbon, autotrophic CO2 fixation, is arguably the most important biosynthetic process on Earth. Having been established early in the Archean Eon, a period characterized by an atmosphere rich in CO2, this metabolism helped spark and fuel the evolution of early microbial life. Mounting evidence suggests that exceedingly high levels of CO2 select for energetically efficient CO2 fixation pathways, immensely affecting carbon cycling. We hypothesize that CO2-rich subsurface ecosystems still harbor microbes that prefer or even require extremely high CO2 concentrations; we refer to these microbes as carbodioxyphiles. Accordingly, elevated CO2 levels would impact the thermodynamics of the microbial central carbon metabolism, enhancing autotrophy and hindering remineralization of organic matter by heterotrophs. To this end, we will study microbial life in CO2-rich subsurface environments and elucidate ancient metabolic pathways rendered obsolete by the CO2 levels of most modern environments. Each of the research team’s members has contributed to prior breakthroughs in novel autotrophic pathways, environmental genomics, metabolomics, and/or the biogeochemistry of deep subsurface environments. Establishing optimal synergy in this wealth of expertise and experience, we will describe novel modes of microbial carbon fixation in CO2-rich settings and elucidate the importance of carbodioxyphily for microbial evolution. Archean Park will provide a unique window through which to study a new mode of cellular biochemistry, the relicts of primordial carbon fixation, and Earth’s earliest carbon cycle. We will comprehensively characterize the metabolic mechanisms exploited by microbes to achieve evolutionary dominion in these relict environments. Our findings will stimulate biotechnological and geotechnical innovations ranging from enhanced autotrophic biomass production to improved carbon sequestration and storage.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy GrantsHost institution
48149 MUENSTER
Germany