ABSTRACT β-Lactamases, the major resistance determinant for β-lactam antibiotics in Gram-
negative bacteria, are ancient enzymes whose origins can be traced back millions of years …

Duality of iron as an essential cofactor of many enzymatic metabolic processes and as a
catalyst of poorly controlled redox-cycling reactions defines its possible biological beneficial …

Fossilized lipids preserved in sedimentary rocks offer singular insights into the Earth's
palaeobiology. These 'biomarkers' encode information pertaining to the oxygenation of the …

Earth has been habitable for 4.3 billion years, and the earliest rock record indicates the
presence of a microbial biosphere by at least 3.4 billion years ago—and disputably earlier …

Cyanobacteria played an important role in the evolution of Early Earth and the biosphere.
They are responsible for the oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans since the Great …

Abstract The Archean era (4 to 2.5 billion years ago, Ga) yielded rocks that include the
oldest conclusive traces of life as well as many controversial occurrences. Carbonaceous …

The discovery of Asgard archaea, phylogenetically closer to eukaryotes than other archaea,
together with improved knowledge of microbial ecology, impose new constraints on …

The integration of fossils, phylogeny, and geochronology has resulted in an increasingly
well-resolved timetable of evolution. Life appears to have taken root before the earliest …

Life is based on energy gained by electron-transfer processes; these processes rely on
oxidoreductase enzymes, which often contain transition metals in their structures. The …

The emergence and diversification of early animals is commonly thought to have coincided
with atmosphere and ocean oxygenation across the terminal Neoproterozoic and early …