Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Infancy of sterol biosynthesis hints at extinct eukaryotic species

A newly discovered fossil record of steroid molecules, spanning 1.64 billion years, points to ancient organisms in the eukaryotic domain being capable of only early steps in the synthesis of sterol molecules.
  1. Fabien Kenig

    1. Fabien Kenig is in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The biosynthetic pathways that give rise to molecules called sterols are well established in the scientific literature. These pathways include the modifications (oxidation and cyclization) of a molecule called squalene to form lanosterol and cycloartenol, which are protosterols — precursors of other sterols. Numerous other steps are then needed to make cholesterol and other related sterols (known as crown sterols) that are found in organisms with cells that have a nucleus (eukaryotes); organisms called crown eukaryotes are either living eukaryotic species or extinct eukaryotic species that are descended from the last common ancestor of all living eukaryotes. Under favourable conditions, the carbon backbones of sterols can be preserved in ancient sedimentary rocks as molecular fossils, which are versions of the molecules that arise as a consequence of geological processes. Writing in Nature, Brocks et al.1 report that their exploration of molecular fossils has uncovered an approximately 640-million-year-long period of Earth’s history when sterol biosynthesis had not yet evolved the complex pathways that exist today.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 618, 678-680 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01816-1

References

  1. Brocks, J. J. et al. Nature 618, 767–773 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Porter, S. M. Interface Focus 10, 20190105 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Bloch, K. New Compr. Biochem. 20, 363–381 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bloch, K. in Blondes in Venetian Paintings, the Nine-Banded Armadillo, and Other Essays in Biochemistry Ch. 2, 14–36 (Yale Univ. Press, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Gold, D. A., Caron, A., Fournier, G. P. & Summons, R. E. Nature 543, 420–423 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Pearson, A., Budin, M. & Brocks, J. J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 15352–15357 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Hoshino, Y. & Gaucher, E. A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2101276118 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Zumberge, J. A., Rocher, D. & Love, G. D. Geobiology 18, 326–347 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links