Caltech researchers find evidence of an early
manganese-oxidizing photosystem
For most terrestrial life on Earth, oxygen is necessary for
survival. But the planet's atmosphere did not always contain this
life-sustaining substance, and one of science's greatest mysteries is how and
when oxygenic photosynthesis—the process responsible for producing oxygen on
Earth through the splitting of water molecules—first began. Now, a team led by
geobiologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has found
evidence of a precursor photosystem involving manganese that predates
cyanobacteria, the first group of organisms to release oxygen into the
environment via photosynthesis.