By Addison DeHaven
During the Archaen Eon — roughly 4 billion years ago — the Earth was a lifeless planet. The atmosphere lacked oxygen, and there were few, if any, organisms to be found anywhere on the globe. Then something incredible happened. Microscopic bacteria appeared in freshwater lakes, likely in what is now present-day Australia. These bacteria — known now as cyanobacteria — had the near magical ability to convert sunlight and water into oxygen and other chemical energy. This systemically changed the Earth's atmosphere over the next billion-plus years, creating the conditions needed for most forms of life that now exist on our planet.
Located in a quiet, refrigerator-like lab on the second floor of South Dakota State University's Edgar S. McFadden Biostress Laboratory sits hundreds of petri dishes full of cyanobacteria samples. Despite the importance of these ancient organisms in creating our world, humanity has not taken full advantage of the practical opportunities afforded by these incredible bacteria, says professor Ruanbao Zhou.
"More than 2.8 billion years ago, tiny cyanobacteria did something truly extraordinary. They used sunlight to split water and release oxygen. In doing so, they turned a lifeless planet into one that could breathe," Zhou said. "Today, these same solar-powered, nitrogen-fixing microbes may once again help us reshape our world."
Zhou is the director of the National Science Foundation-backed BioNitrogen Economy Research Center. Through a collaborative effort from SDSU, South Dakota Mines, University of South Dakota, Oglala Lakota College and Houdek, South Dakota's top biologists and scientists are working to harness the power of these ancient organisms.
Source : sdstate.edu