Ancient Cells Adapted to Survive Environmental Changes by Storing Toxins

Earth's earliest life forms developed ways to survive the harmful effects of arsenic to cope with dramatic changes in their environment, a new study suggests.

The researchers found the complex life forms, called eukaryotes, stored arsenic inside special compartments within their cells, a strategy that helped neutralise the toxic poison.

Using advanced X-ray technology, the international team was able to detect and map arsenic within 2.1-billion-year-old fossils from the Francevillian Basin in Gabon.

The arsenic found in the fossils was not due to later contamination but part of a biological response to environmental stress, according to the team.

This is revealed by distinct patterns formed from the arsenic preservation process in the fossils when compared to structures left by non-living mineral structures; it is further evidence the fossils were once complex living organisms with more advanced cells, they argue.

Their study, published in Nature Communications, reshapes current understandings of how early life faced environmental challenges, highlighting the critical role adaptation played in the evolution of life.

\"The ability to cope with arsenic was not something eukaryotes developed randomly,\" said Dr Ernest Chi Fru, one of the paper's co-authors and Reader at Cardiff University's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

\"It coincided with a period of significant environmental change, when oxygen levels in the Earth's atmosphere first rose. This increase in oxygen also led to a rise in arsenate, a particularly toxic form of arsenic which competes with phosphate, a vital nutrient for all life, making Earth's oceans a dangerous place.\"

According to the source: Mirage News.