Mulligan Christopher, Gold David A
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA.
Geobiology. 2025 Jul-Aug;23(4):e70029. doi: 10.1111/gbi.70029.
The discovery of cholestane in animal fossils from the Ediacaran (571-541 million years ago) has generated much excitement, but it is not the only interesting biomarker recovered. Coprostane, a geologically stable form of coprostanol, has also been found in Ediacaran rocks. This is surprising, since coprostanol is typically used in modern settings as an environmental biomarker for humans and other mammals, who produce the compound with help from bacteria in their gut. The prevailing hypothesis is that an abundance of coprostane in some Ediacaran fossils-particularly Dickinsonia-represents the degradation of the organism's cholesterol by bacteria in the microbial mat, comparable to what is seen in modern vertebrate corpses as they decompose. However, this hypothesis assumes coprostanol-producing bacteria were absent in the guts of Ediacaran organisms, and to date no one has tested whether such bacteria exist in modern invertebrates. In this study, we assembled 115 metagenomes to look for evidence of coprostanol-producing enzymes in invertebrate microbiomes. Ultimately, we did not find any evidence for the enzyme in any invertebrate microbiomes, supporting the hypothesis that coprostane is not a gut biomarker for Ediacaran animals. However, a reassessment of coprostane/cholestane ratios shows Dickinsonia was unique in coprostanol enrichment, with ratio levels comparable to waste polluted marine waters and modern vertebrate feces. While we cannot rule out the possibility of contamination, we prefer a novel interpretation of the coprostane signature in dickinsoniomorph fossils, where the elevated level of coprostanol comes from digestion of the microbial mat and concentration of the biologically inert compound. If correct, the elevated coprostanol signal provides new insights into the feeding strategy of these enigmatic animals.
在埃迪卡拉纪(5.71亿至5.41亿年前)动物化石中发现胆甾烷引发了诸多关注,但它并非唯一被发现的有趣生物标志物。粪甾烷,一种地质稳定形式的粪甾醇,也在埃迪卡拉纪岩石中被发现。这令人惊讶,因为粪甾醇在现代环境中通常用作人类和其他哺乳动物的环境生物标志物,这些动物在肠道细菌的帮助下产生这种化合物。普遍的假设是,一些埃迪卡拉纪化石(特别是狄更逊水母)中大量的粪甾烷代表了微生物垫中的细菌对生物体胆固醇的降解,这与现代脊椎动物尸体分解时的情况类似。然而,这个假设认为埃迪卡拉纪生物的肠道中不存在产生粪甾醇的细菌,并且迄今为止没有人测试过现代无脊椎动物中是否存在这种细菌。在这项研究中,我们收集了115个宏基因组,以寻找无脊椎动物微生物群中产生粪甾醇的酶的证据。最终我们在任何无脊椎动物微生物群中都没有找到该酶的证据,这支持了粪甾烷不是埃迪卡拉纪动物肠道生物标志物的假设。然而,对粪甾烷/胆甾烷比率的重新评估表明,狄更逊水母在粪甾醇富集方面是独特的,其比率水平与受污染的海水和现代脊椎动物粪便相当。虽然我们不能排除污染的可能性,但我们倾向于对狄更逊水母化石中粪甾烷特征的一种新解释,即粪甾醇水平的升高来自微生物垫的消化以及这种生物惰性化合物的浓缩。如果正确的话,升高的粪甾醇信号为这些神秘动物的进食策略提供了新的见解。
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