Fossils of hydrothermal vent worms from cretaceous sulfide ores of the samail ophiolite, oman

Organic walled microfossils in wet peperites from the early Cretaceous Paraná-Etendeka volcanism of Brazil

Large igneous provinces (LIPs) are major magmatic events that have a significant impact on the global environment and the biosphere, for example as triggers of mass extinctions. LIPs provide an excellent sedimentological and geochemical record of short but intense periods of geological activity in the past, but their contribution towards understanding ancient life is much more restricted due to the destructive nature of their igneous origin. Here, we provide the first paleontological evidence for organic walled microfossils extracted from wet peperites from the Early Cretaceous Paraná-Etendeka intertrappean deposits of the Paraná basin in Brazil. Wet peperites are a volcaniclastic rock formed by the interaction of lava and subaqueous sediments.The Paraná-Etendeka was formed during the Valanginian (ca. 132 Ma) as a continental flood basalt in present day South America and Namibia, and released enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, methane and hydrogen fluoride into the atmosphere. The organic walled microfossils recovered from the Paraná-Etendeka peperites include pollen grains, spores, acritarchs, and other remains of unidentifiable organic matter. In addition to the peperites, organic walled microfossils were also found in heterolithic sandstones and interpillow sandstones. Our findings represent the first insight into the biodiversity of the Paraná Basin during the Early Cretaceous during a period of intense magmatism, and the microfossil assemblages corroborate a regional paleoclimatic transition from arid to more humid conditions that were likely induced by the volcanic activity. We corroborate the potential of wet peperite rocks as a valuable source of paleobiological data and emphasize the importance of sampling volcaniclastic units that have been traditionally considered with lower fossiliferous potential due to their igneous origin.

Cryogenian magmatic activity and early life evolution

Data from the Qinling Orogenic Belt in China indicate that a strong magmatic-volcanic event on the Snowball Earth during the Cryogenian age (approximately 720–635 million years ago) was followed by a dynamic period of accelerated evolution of early life through the Ediacaran period. The studied volcanics of the Cryogenian Yaolinghe group are mainly represented by andesite, dacite and rhyolite, with minor amounts of basalt, trachy andesite and trachyte towards the top, which formed in the environment of an active island arc related to a continental margin. Compared with average felsic volcanics, the studied Cryogenian marine volcanic strata are enriched (1.5–30.6 times) in Co, Cr, Bi, Ni, Se, Ga, As, Cu, Ba, V, and Zn. Elemental concentrations (P, Cd, Co, Ni, and Se) of the studied volcanics are more than 5–26.4 times those in the contemporaneous Liantuo tillite. We propose that Cryogenian magmatic and volcanic activity increased the flux of some trace nutritional elements into the oceans which possibly provided essential nutrients for the development of early life.

Proteome Evolution of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Alvinellid Polychaetes Supports the Ancestry of Thermophily and Subsequent Adaptation to Cold in Some Lineages

Temperature, perhaps more than any other environmental factor, is likely to influence the evolution of all organisms. It is also a very interesting factor to understand how genomes are shaped by selection over evolutionary timescales, as it potentially affects the whole genome. Among thermophilic prokaryotes, temperature affects both codon usage and protein composition to increase the stability of the transcriptional/translational machinery, and the resulting proteins need to be functional at high temperatures. Among eukaryotes less is known about genome evolution, and the tube-dwelling worms of the family Alvinellidae represent an excellent opportunity to test hypotheses about the emergence of thermophily in ectothermic metazoans. The Alvinellidae are a group of worms that experience varying thermal regimes, presumably having evolved into these niches over evolutionary times. Here we analyzed 423 putative orthologous loci derived from 6 alvinellid species including the thermophilic Alvinella pompejana and Paralvinella sulfincola. This comparative approach allowed us to assess amino acid composition, codon usage, divergence, direction of residue changes and the strength of selection along the alvinellid phylogeny, and to design a new eukaryotic thermophilic criterion based on significant differences in the residue composition of proteins. Contrary to expectations, the alvinellid ancestor of all present-day species seems to have been thermophilic, a trait subsequently maintained by purifying selection in lineages that still inhabit higher temperature environments. In contrast, lineages currently living in colder habitats likely evolved under selective relaxation, with some degree of positive selection for low-temperature adaptation at the protein level.

Antagonistic evolution of an antibiotic and its molecular chaperone: how to maintain a vital ectosymbiosis in a highly fluctuating habitat

Evolution of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) has been shown to be driven by recurrent duplications and balancing/positive selection in response to new or altered bacterial pathogens. We use Alvinella pompejana, the most eurythermal animal known on Earth, to decipher the selection patterns acting on AMP in an ecological rather than controlled infection approach. The preproalvinellacin multigenic family presents the uniqueness to encode a molecular chaperone (BRICHOS) together with an AMP (alvinellacin) that controls the vital ectosymbiosis of Alvinella. In stark contrast to what is observed in the context of the Red queen paradigm, we demonstrate that exhibiting a vital and highly conserved ecto-symbiosis in the face of thermal fluctuations has led to a peculiar selective trend promoting the adaptive diversification of the molecular chaperone of the AMP, but not of the AMP itself. Because BRICHOS stabilizes beta-stranded peptides, this polymorphism likely represents an eurythermal adaptation to stabilize the structure of alvinellacin, thus hinting at its efficiency to select and control the epibiosis across the range of temperatures experienced by the worm; Our results fill some knowledge gaps concerning the function of BRICHOS in invertebrates and offer perspectives for studying immune genes in an evolutionary ecological framework.

Mineralization of Alvinella polychaete tubes at hydrothermal vents

Alvinellid polychaete worms form multilayered organic tubes in the hottest and most rapidly growing areas of deep-sea hydrothermal vent chimneys. Over short periods of time, these tubes can become entirely mineralized within this environment. Documenting the nature of this process in terms of the stages of mineralization, as well as the mineral textures and end products that result, is essential for our understanding of the fossilization of polychaetes at hydrothermal vents. Here, we report in detail the full mineralization of Alvinella spp. tubes collected from the East Pacific Rise, determined through the use of a wide range of imaging and analytical techniques. We propose a new model for tube mineralization, whereby mineralization begins as templating of tube layer and sublayer surfaces and results in fully mineralized tubes comprised of multiple concentric, colloform, pyrite bands. Silica appeared to preserve organic tube layers in some samples. Fine-scale features such as protein fibres, extracellular polymeric substances and two types of filamentous microbial colonies were also found to be well preserved within a subset of the tubes. The fully mineralized Alvinella spp. tubes do not closely resemble known ancient hydrothermal vent tube fossils, corroborating molecular evidence suggesting that the alvinellids are a relatively recent polychaete lineage. We also compare pyrite and silica preservation of organic tissues within hydrothermal vents to soft tissue preservation in sediments and hot springs.

Proteome adaptation to high temperatures in the ectothermic hydrothermal vent Pompeii worm

Taking advantage of the massive genome sequencing effort made on thermophilic prokaryotes, thermal adaptation has been extensively studied by analysing amino acid replacements and codon usage in these unicellular organisms. In most cases, adaptation to thermophily is associated with greater residue hydrophobicity and more charged residues. Both of these characteristics are positively correlated with the optimal growth temperature of prokaryotes. In contrast, little information has been collected on the molecular 'adaptive' strategy of thermophilic eukaryotes. The Pompeii worm A. pompejana, whose transcriptome has recently been sequenced, is currently considered as the most thermotolerant eukaryote on Earth, withstanding the greatest thermal and chemical ranges known. We investigated the amino-acid composition bias of ribosomal proteins in the Pompeii worm when compared to other lophotrochozoans and checked for putative adaptive changes during the course of evolution using codon-based Maximum likelihood analyses. We then provided a comparative analysis of codon usage and amino-acid replacements from a greater set of orthologous genes between the Pompeii worm and Paralvinella grasslei, one of its closest relatives living in a much cooler habitat. Analyses reveal that both species display the same high GC-biased codon usage and amino-acid patterns favoring both positively-charged residues and protein hydrophobicity. These patterns may be indicative of an ancestral adaptation to the deep sea and/or thermophily. In addition, the Pompeii worm displays a set of amino-acid change patterns that may explain its greater thermotolerance, with a significant increase in Tyr, Lys and Ala against Val, Met and Gly. Present results indicate that, together with a high content in charged residues, greater proportion of smaller aliphatic residues, and especially alanine, may be a different path for metazoans to face relatively 'high' temperatures and thus a novelty in thermophilic metazoans.

Biogeological mineralization in deep-sea hydrothermal deposits

Oriented drill cores retrieved from active massive sulfide edifices at the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge contain an abundance of fossilized tube structures associated with vestimentiferan and annelid worms. The petrological evolution of these biogeological structures and their presence deep inside the edifice walls demonstrate that an initial, worm-mediated texture directly affects the subsequent steps of inorganic precipitation, wall infilling, and outward growth of these black smoker deposits. The presence of fossilized structures in hydrothermal discharge sites that are 2 kilometers apart and their similarity to structures observed in other modern and ancient deposits suggest that these biogeological processes are general phenomena.

Evolution of the sulfide-binding function within the globin multigenic family of the deep-sea hydrothermal vent tubeworm Riftia pachyptila

The giant extracellular hexagonal bilayer hemoglobin (HBL-Hb) of the deep-sea hydrothermal vent tube worm Riftia pachyptila is able to transport simultaneously O(2) and H(2)S in the blood from the gills to a specific organ: the trophosome that harbors sulfide-oxidizing endosymbionts. This vascular HBL-Hb is made of 144 globins from which four globin types (A1, A2, B1, and B2) coevolve. The H(2)S is bound at a specific location (not on the heme site) onto two of these globin types. In order to understand how such a function emerged and evolved in vestimentiferans and other related annelids, six partial cDNAs corresponding to the six globins known to compose the multigenic family of R. pachyptila have been identified and sequenced. These partial sequences (ca. 120 amino acids, i.e., 80% of the entire protein) were used to reconstruct molecular phylogenies in order to trace duplication events that have led to the family organization of these globins and to locate the position of the free cysteine residues known to bind H(2)S. From these sequences, only two free cysteine residues have been found to occur, at positions Cys + 1 (i.e., 1 a.a. from the well-conserved distal histidine) and Cys + 11 (i.e., 11 a.a. from the same histidine) in globins B2 and A2, respectively. These two positions are well conserved in annelids, vestimentiferans, and pogonophorans, which live in sulfidic environments. The structural comparison of the hydrophobic environment that surrounds these cysteine residues (the sulfide-binding domain) using hydrophobic cluster analysis plots, together with the cysteine positions in paralogous strains, suggests that the sulfide-binding function might have emerged before the annelid radiation in order to detoxify this toxic compound. Moreover, globin evolutionary rates are highly different between paralogous strains. This suggests that either the two globin subfamilies involved in the sulfide-binding function (A2 and B2) have evolved under strong directional selective constraints (negative selection) and that the two other globins (A1 and B1) have accumulated more substitutions through positive selection or have evolved neutrally after a relaxation of selection pressures. A likely scenario on the evolution of this multigenic family is proposed and discussed from this data set.

New archaeogastropod limpets from hydrothermal vents; superfamily lepetodrilacea I. Systematic descriptions

Nine new species, six in the new genus Lepetodrilus and three in the new genus Gorgoleptis , are proposed in two new families, which together compose the new archaeogastropod superfamily Lepetodrilacea, as yet known only from the deep-sea hydrothermal-vent habitat in the eastern Pacific. Shells are limpet-shaped, of non-nacreous aragonite, with tough periostracum enveloping the shell edge. The apex is posterior, in some species projecting posteriorly, and deflected to the right. Sculpture is lacking or of beads or imbricate radial ribs. The muscle scar is horseshoe-shaped and narrowed posteriorly. The radula is rhipidoglossate and unique in forming a V-alignment of lateral teeth descending toward the rachidian. The families differ in morphology of the first lateral tooth, morphology of the ctenidium, and in placement of the penis: on the right ventral side of the neck in Lepetodrilidae and an outgrowth of the left oral region in Gorgoleptidae. Gorgoleptidae further differ in retaining the operculum and in having a posterior periostracal band shielding the posterior viscera and extending adjacent to the operculum. Anatomy is treated in part II by Fretter ( Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 318, 33 (1988)). Three species ( L. pustulosus , the type species of Lepetodrilus , L. elevatus and L. cristatus ) are known from the Galapagos Rift and two sites on the East Pacific Rise, near 21° N and 13° N. One species, L. ovalis , is known from the two sites along the East Pacific Rise. The remaining species are as yet known only from single sites: L.guaymasensis from the Guaymas Basin, L. fucensis from the Juan de Fuca and Explorer Ridges, G. emarginatus from 21° N, G. spiralis from 13° N, and G. patulus from the Galapagos Rift. Only one of the broadly distributed species, L. elevatus , exhibits sufficient geographical variation to warrant the recognition of a subspecies, L. elevatus galriftensis , n. subsp., at the Galapagos Rift. These species are known only from sites exposed to warm hydrothermal effluent, not from the hotter environments of the black smokers or from cold sulphide seeps. Shell characters are most similar to the ‘tapersnout’ superfamily, yet to be described, from which these species differ in having pitted sculpture on the protoconch. The Jurassic to early Cretaceous Symmetrocapulidae had similar shell proportions but were much larger; the Symmetrocapulidae are best considered an archaeogastropod sister group. The hydrothermal-vent habitat has been available throughout geological time; hydrogen sulphide toxicity should prevent invasions of new kinds of predators, thus promoting stability and longevity of species established in this community. Differences from other archaeogastropods at the superfamily level suggest that the origin of the Lepetodrilacea took place in the late Palaeozoic to early Mesozoic, the time at which other living archaeogastropod superfamilies appeared. The rift-vent habitat was most likely entered via shallow to successively deeper sites along ridge crests. Unique anatomies and radular characters are considered remnants of early archaeogastropod diversity from the period in which archaeogastropods were the dominant gastropods in shallow seas.

Lipid biomarkers for bacterial ecosystems: studies of cultured organisms, hydrothermal environments and ancient sediments

This paper forms part of our long-term goal of using molecular structure and carbon isotopic signals preserved as hydrocarbons in ancient sediments to improve understanding of the early evolution of Earth's surface environment. We are particularly concerned with biomarkers which are informative about aerobiosis. Here, we combine bacterial biochemistry with the organic geochemistry of contemporary and ancient hydrothermal ecosystems to construct models for the nature, behaviour and preservation potential of primitive microbial communities. We use a combined molecular and isotopic approach to characterize lipids produced by cultured bacteria and test a variety of culture conditions which affect their biosynthesis. This information is then compared with lipid mixtures isolated from contemporary hot springs and evaluated for the kinds of chemical change that would accompany burial and incorporation into the sedimentary record. In this study we have shown that growth temperature does not appear to alter isotopic fractionation within the lipid classes produced by a methanotropic bacterium. We also found that cultured cyanobacteria biosynthesize diagnostic methylalkanes and dimethylalkanes with the latter only made when growing under low pCO2. In an examination of a microbial mat sample from Octopus Spring, Yellowstone National Park (USA), we could readily identify chemical structures with 13C contents which were diagnostic for the phototrophic organisms such as cyanobacteria and Chloroflexus. We could not, however, find molecular evidence for operation of a methane cycle in the particular mat samples we studied.

Ancient hydrothermal ecosystems on earth: a new palaeobiological frontier

Thermal springs are common in the oceans and on land. Early in the history of the Earth they would have been even more abundant, because of a higher heat flow. A thermophilic lifestyle has been proposed for the common ancestor of extant life, and hydrothermal ecosystems can be expected to have existed on Earth since life arose. Though there has been a great deal of recent research on this topic by biologists, palaeobiologists have done little to explore ancient high temperature environments. Exploration geologists and miners have long known the importance of hydrothermal systems, as they are sources for much of our gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. Such systems are particularly abundant in Archaean and Proterozoic successions. Despite the rarity of systematic searches of these by palaeobiologists, already 12 fossiliferous Phanerozoic deposits are known. Five are 'black smoker' type submarine deposits that formed in the deep ocean and preserve a vent fauna like that in the modern oceans; the oldest is Devonian. Three are from shallow marine deposits of Carboniferous age. As well as 'worm tubes', several of these contain morphological or isotopic evidence of microbial life. The oldest well established fossiliferous submarine thermal spring deposit is Cambro-Ordovician; microorganisms of at least three or four types are preserved in this. One example each of Carboniferous and Jurassic sub-lacustrine fossiliferous thermal springs are known. There are two convincing examples of fossiliferous subaerial hydrothermal deposits. Both are Devonian. Several known Proterozoic and Archaean deposits are likely to preserve a substantial palaeobiological record, and all the indications are that there must be numerous deposits suitable for study. Already it is demonstrable that in ancient thermal spring deposits there is a record of microbial communities preserved as stromatolites, microfossils, isotope distribution patterns and hydrocarbon biomarkers.

The deep, hot biosphere

There are strong indications that microbial life is widespread at depth in the crust of the Earth, just as such life has been identified in numerous ocean vents. This life is not dependent on solar energy and photosynthesis for its primary energy supply, and it is essentially independent of the surface circumstances. Its energy supply comes from chemical sources, due to fluids that migrate upward from deeper levels in the Earth. In mass and volume it may be comparable with all surface life. Such microbial life may account for the presence of biological molecules in all carbonaceous materials in the outer crust, and the inference that these materials must have derived from biological deposits accumulated at the surface is therefore not necessarily valid. Subsurface life may be widespread among the planetary bodies of our solar system, since many of them have equally suitable conditions below, while having totally inhospitable surfaces. One may even speculate that such life may be widely disseminated in the universe, since planetary type bodies with similar subsurface conditions may be common as solitary objects in space, as well as in other solar-type systems.

Cretaceous Cold-Seep Communities and Methane-Derived Carbonates in the Canadian Arctic

Lower Cretaceous cold-seep fossil assemblages have been found in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Serpulid worm tubes and bivalves are most abundant in these communities; in contrast, fossils are scarce in the surrounding strata. The fossils are contained in an isotopically light (delta(13)C = -25 to -50 per mil) carbonate rock groundmass that is interpreted to have formed from bacterial oxidation of methane. The rocks were deposited at intermediate depth (</=400 meters) in a cold marine environment; nearby normal faults may have provided a conduit for seeping methane and hydrogen sulfide needed to fuel chemosynthetic bacteria, and in turn, the higher life forms.

Hydrothermal Vent Animals: Distribution and Biology

Hydrothermal vent communities characterized by large clams, mussels, and vestimentiferan worms thrive on chemosynthetic microbial production. There are similarities in the animal distributions at vent communities from 20 degrees S to 46 degrees N on the Mid-Ocean Ridge in the Pacific Ocean and at cold sulfide seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. Vent communities, consisting of at least 16 previously unknown families of invertebrates, are at least 200 million years old. Since the life-span of a vent is only tens of years, the species survive by rapid growth and widespread dispersal of larvae with the subsequent colonization of new vents.

Geomicrobiology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

During the cycling of seawater through the earth's crust along the mid-ocean ridge system, geothermal energy is transferred into chemical energy in the form of reduced inorganic compounds. These compounds are derived from the reaction of seawater with crustal rocks at high temperatures and are emitted from warm (</=25 degrees C) and hot ( approximately 350 degrees C) submarine vents at depths of 2000 to 3000 meters. Chemolithotrophic bacteria use these reduced chemical species as sources of energy for the reduction of carbon dioxide (assimilation) to organic carbon. These bacteria form the base of the food chain, which permits copious populations of certain specifically adapted invertebrates to grow in the immediate vicinity of the vents. Such highly prolific, although narrowly localized, deep-sea communities are thus maintained primarily by terrestrial rather than by solar energy. Reduced sulfur compounds appear to represent the major electron donors for aerobic microbial metabolism, but methane-, hydrogen-, iron-, and manganese-oxidizing bacteria have also been found. Methanogenic, sulfur-respiring, and extremely thermophilic isolates carry out anaerobic chemosynthesis. Bacteria grow most abundantly in the shallow crust where upwelling hot, reducing hydrothermal fluid mixes with downwelling cold, oxygenated seawater. The predominant production of biomass, however, is the result of symbiotic associations between chemolithotrophic bacteria and certain invertebrates, which have also been found as fossils in Cretaceous sulfide ores of ophiolite deposits.