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地球上的早期生命依赖于一种极其稀有的金属
威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的一项研究表明，34 亿年前的古代生命依赖稀缺的钼来进行重要的生化过程，突显了其在进化和天体生物学中意想不到的作用。
来源:Scientific InquirerA new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison shows that 3.4 billion years ago, life on Earth relied on a metal called molybdenum, despite its limited availability at the time.Published inNature Communications,the study is the first to trace molybdenum’s use this far back in time.
Molybdenum is a metal vital for many biochemical processes because it speeds up the rate of chemical reactions needed to perform those processes, such as nitrogen fixation.这些反应在没有金属的情况下仍然可能发生，但速度不足以维持生命。
“What is kind of counterintuitive is that, according to the geochemical record, molybdenum abundance on the early Earth seems to have been a lot lower billions of years ago, particularly before the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis,” says Aya Klos, a PhD student in bacteriology at UW–Madison.
然而，由于某种原因，尽管其可用性有限，生命仍然通过依赖钼的生化过程继续进化。这些过程已经传承到现代生物体中。
在这项研究中，研究人员还追踪了细胞中的钼，以了解它如何在细胞中移动和被细胞利用。 The team plans to continue research aimed at understanding why life would continue to invest in molybdenum-reliant biochemical processes even when other, more plentiful elements were available.
They also traced back in time the use of tungsten, a metal that can act like molybdenum but is typically associated with modern organisms that live in extreme environments.该研究表明，生命在数十亿年前就已经开始对钼和钨进行实验。
Betül Kaçar,a professor of bacteriology at UW–Madison and the senior author of the paper, explains that understanding which elements early life relied on can aid astrobiologists in identifying other planets that could potentially support life.
对哈扎狩猎采集者的研究表明，他们的分享行为通常......