Did the emergence of oxygen in the early earth help the evolution of multicellular life?

Scientists have long believed that the increase in oxygen content in the atmosphere is directly related to the rise of large and complex multicellular organisms

This theory, the "oxygen control hypothesis," suggests that the size of these early multicellular organisms was limited by the depth of oxygen diffusion into their bodies

This is a hypothesis that is difficult to verify in the laboratory

"The positive effect of oxygen on the evolution of multicellular organisms depends entirely on the dose-the first oxygen action on our planet will strongly limit rather than promote the evolution of multicellular life," a research scientist in the School of Biological Sciences and the researcher The lead author G.

"Macroscopic Multicellular Oxygen Inhibition" was published in the journal Nature Communications on May 14, 2021

Guide yeast to evolve in record time

"We proved that the role of oxygen is more complicated than previously thought

He added: "For a long time, people have thought that the oxidation of the earth's surface is helpful to the evolution of large, complex multicellular organisms-some people even say this is a prerequisite

Researchers can do this, however, snow yeast, a simple multicellular organism, can evolve rapidly

The result surprised Bozdag

Size-and oxygen content-are essential for multicellular growth

In the team’s research, “when our yeast does not have oxygen or sufficient oxygen, the large size is easy to evolve, but when the oxygen content is low, it does not,” Ratcliffe said

Ratcliffe said that his team's work not only challenges the oxygen control hypothesis, but also helps science understand why in the billions of years after the Great Oxidation event, there has been almost no obvious evolutionary innovation in the world of multicellular organisms

Bozdag added another insight into the unique nature of this research

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 Bozdag, GO, Libby, E.