Sun Shiyu, Xue Shuwen, Liang Xiao, Zeng De-Hui, Liang Bo, Xia Yingchun, Tai Peidong
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Biol Trace Elem Res. 2025 Oct 18. doi: 10.1007/s12011-025-04876-8.
Organisms inherently preserve ancestral information within their bodies, proving evidence of evolutionary processes. Selenium, the least abundant essential element in the Earth's crust, has emerged as a limiting factor in the development of animal reproductive systems. By integrating selenium concentration information from plants and animals, this study demonstrates that the decline in Earth's surface selenium abundance may be associated with the origin and extinction of vertebrate species. Coal-derived selenium abundance data indicate that surface selenium may have been continuously lost, with depletion rates consistent with a natural decay process that could contribute to periodic vertebrate extinctions. The conserved selenium levels in animal germ cells imply that animals require selenium more strictly than plants, potentially imposing certain boundary conditions and constraints on the evolution of vertebrate reproductive systems (origin of new species). The syntheses here suggest that the biogeochemistry of selenium, broadly defined, provides new information and insight into the coevolution of vertebrate species and environment.
生物体在其体内天然地保留着祖先的信息，这为进化过程提供了证据。硒是地壳中含量最少的必需元素，已成为动物生殖系统发育的限制因素。通过整合来自植物和动物的硒浓度信息，本研究表明地球表面硒丰度的下降可能与脊椎动物物种的起源和灭绝有关。煤炭衍生的硒丰度数据表明，地表硒可能一直在持续流失，其消耗速率与一个可能导致脊椎动物周期性灭绝的自然衰变过程一致。动物生殖细胞中硒水平的保守性意味着动物比植物对硒的需求更为严格，这可能对脊椎动物生殖系统（新物种起源）的进化施加了一定的边界条件和限制。这里的综合研究表明，广义定义的硒生物地球化学为脊椎动物物种与环境的共同进化提供了新的信息和见解。
