Microorganisms that transform and oxidize organic material (that is, heterotrophs) play a
fundamental role in the geochemical cycling of key elements in the ocean. Through their …

For most of Earth's history life was microbial, with archaeal and bacterial cells mediating
biogeochemical cycles through their metabolisms and ecologies. This diversity was …

The record of the coevolution of oxygenic phototrophs and the environment is preserved in
three forms: genomes of modern organisms, diverse geochemical signals of surface …

Bacterial chitinases are integral in breaking down chitin, the natural polymer in crustacean
and insect exoskeletons. Their increasing utilization across various sectors such as …

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) constitute a significant portion of gas-phase
metabolites in modern ecosystems and have unique roles in moderating atmospheric …

The first comprehensive timetree is presented for phytoplasmas, a diverse group of obligate
intracellular bacteria restricted to phloem sieve elements of vascular plants and tissues of …

Background Chitin is one of the most abundant biopolymers on Earth, only trailing second
after cellulose. The enzyme chitinase is responsible for the degradation of chitin. Chitinases …

The molecular clock in combination with evidence from the geological record can be applied
to infer the timing and dynamics of evolutionary events. This has enormous potential to shed …

Molecular clock analyses are challenging for microbial phylogenies, due to a lack of fossil
calibrations that can reliably provide absolute time constraints. An alternative source of …

Motivation A chronogram is a dated phylogenetic tree whose branch lengths have been
scaled to represent time. Such chronograms are computed based on available date …