Ancient microbes offer clues to life’s origins and carbon capture

Australian-led research into ancient microbialite structures is revealing how early life thrived without sunlight, offering potential insights for future carbon capture strategies.

An Australian-led study is uncovering new clues about life’s origins by studying ancient microbialite structures formed by early microbes.

The research, conducted by Monash University in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and University College London, offered new insights into how early life forms may have thrived in extreme environments and could inform future carbon capture strategies to combat climate change.

The study showed that microbialites, among Earth’s earliest life forms, could thrive without sunlight by using energy from chemicals such as hydrogen, iron, ammonia, and sulfur. This allowed them to survive even in total darkness.

"We think these ecosystems have been places where microbes came up with new ways to survive and make energy, helping shape the course of life on Earth," said Francesco Ricci, the study’s first author and a postdoctoral research fellow at Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s Greening Lab.

Senior author Harry McClelland from University College London said the team was uncovering general rules for how these microbial communities function, finding that chemical energy exchange between neighbouring areas boosts carbon fixation and recaptures carbon dioxide, enhancing productivity.

Ricci noted that certain microbes in microbialites efficiently consume greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, suggesting their potential for innovative carbon capture to help mitigate climate change.

Living examples of microbialites can be found in Western Australia, which not only shed light on Earth’s earliest ecosystems but also point to new possibilities for sustainable carbon management, according to the study published in the ISME Journal of the Netherlands-based International Society for Microbial Ecology.

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