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Nature 451, 635-636 (7 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/451635a; Published online 6 February 2008

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Evolutionary biology: Ancient bacteria liked it hot

Manolo Gouy1 & Marc Chaussidon2

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Proteins from ancestral bacteria have been modelled and reconstructed. Strikingly, the heat stability of these proteins parallels the temperatures of their ocean habitats, as determined from the geological record.

The study of the environment in which early life evolved has long been the domain of the physical sciences. For example, analyses of the chemical and isotopic compositions of rocks formed during the Archaean (from 3,800 million years ago to 2,500 million years ago) allow precise dating and reconstruction of environmental parameters at that time, such as seawater temperature and atmospheric composition.

  1. Manolo Gouy is at the Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre, 69622 Villeurbanne, France.
    Email: mgouy@biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr
  2. Marc Chaussidon is at the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, BP 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France.
    Email: chocho@crpg.cnrs-nancy.fr

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