Photosynthesis is the ability to use the Sun’s energy to produce sugars via chemical reactions. There are two types of photosynthesis: oxygenic and anoxygenic.
Oxygenic photosynthesis splits water into oxygen and hydrogen to power the process, and releases oxygen as a by-product. This is what plants, algae, and some bacteria, do.
Anoxygenic photosynthesis, on the other hand, uses molecules other than water to power the process. It does not release oxygen. This is what other bacteria do.
Scientists have always assumed that anoxygenic photosynthesis is more 'primitive', and that oxygenic photosynthesis evolved from it. Under this view, anoxygenic photosynthesis emerged about 3.5 billion years ago and oxygenic photosynthesis evolved a billion years later.
However, by analysing structures inside an ancient type of bacteria, Imperial College London researchers have suggested that a key step in oxygenic photosynthesis may have already been possible a billion years before commonly thought.
This finding could mean that the evolution of photosynthesis needs revising.
See more details on Science Daily.
(Image Credit: hajninjah/ Pixabay)
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WE used to call what some bacteria can do, CHEMOSYNTHESIS.
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