2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Early evolution of cyanobacteria: investigation into evolutionary transition between non-oxygenic and oxygenic photosyntheses

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24657067
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Biodiversity/Systematics
Research Institution	Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
Principal Investigator	TOMITANI Akiko 独立行政法人海洋研究開発機構, 海洋・極限環境生物圏領域, 主任研究員 (60392940)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	進化 / シアノバクテリア / 環境 / 多様性 / 酸素
Research Abstract	Cyanobacteria are the first oxygenic photosynthetic organisms on earth and have significant effects on organismic and environmental history. Elucidation of their evolution thus is one of key questions in the study of early life and earth. Based on structural analyses of photosynthetic apparatuses and molecular phylogenetic studies, cyanobacteria are generally considered to have originated from non-oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria: however, how and when they evolved has remained unclear. This study aimed at revealing early evolution of cyanobacteria and its relation to the earth's environmental change, through integration of physiological and molecular-phylogenetic analyses of modern cyanobacteria under the oxic-anoxic interface, with environmental and geological information.