Hassenkam T, Rosing M T
Nano-Science Center, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Commun Integr Biol. 2017 Nov 14;10(5-6):e1380759. doi: 10.1080/19420889.2017.1380759. eCollection 2017.
3.7 Billion year old inclusions inside garnet crystals contain C depleted carbonaceous material consistent with biogenic origin. Additional evidence in the form of the other elements of life mainly O, N and P were found to be structural bound to this material by using a new technique, AFM-IR. Here we show additional evidence that support our claim. By overlaying maps generated by the AFM-IR we show how the location of 100's of nm sized contiguous domains of nitrile and possibly phosphonate overlap inside the inclusion. This shows that O, N and P are not only co-localized to the same inclusion but they are co-localized to the same patch of carbonaceous material inside the inclusion. They therefore provide spatial characterization for potentially the oldest biogenic remains in Earth's geological record and corroborates earlier claims for the biogenic origins of carbon in Isua metasediments.
石榴石晶体内部37亿年前的包裹体含有与生物源一致的碳贫化碳质材料。通过使用一种新技术——原子力显微镜红外光谱（AFM-IR），发现生命的其他主要元素（主要是氧、氮和磷）以结构结合的形式存在于这种材料中。在此，我们展示了支持我们观点的更多证据。通过叠加AFM-IR生成的图谱，我们展示了包裹体内数百纳米大小的腈和可能的膦酸酯连续区域的位置是如何重叠的。这表明氧、氮和磷不仅共定位在同一个包裹体中，而且它们共定位在包裹体内同一小块碳质材料上。因此，它们为地球地质记录中潜在最古老的生物遗迹提供了空间特征，并证实了早期关于伊苏阿变质沉积物中碳的生物源起源的说法。
