Dataset Information

Pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate.

ABSTRACT: Geochemical analyses of sedimentary barites (barium sulfates) in the geological record have yielded fundamental insights into the chemistry of the Archean environment and evolutionary origin of microbial metabolisms. However, the question of how barites were able to precipitate from a contemporary ocean that contained only trace amounts of sulfate remains controversial. Here we report dissolved and particulate multi-element and barium-isotopic data from Lake Superior that evidence pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate. These pelagic barites likely precipitate within particle-associated microenvironments supplied with additional barium and sulfate ions derived from heterotrophic remineralization of organic matter. If active during the Archean, pelagic precipitation and subsequent sedimentation may account for the genesis of enigmatic barite deposits. Indeed, barium-isotopic analyses of barites from the Paleoarchean Dresser Formation are consistent with a pelagic mechanism of precipitation, which altogether offers a new paradigm for interpreting the temporal occurrence of barites in the geological record.

SUBMITTER: Horner TJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5673900 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate.

Horner Tristan J TJ Pryer Helena V HV Nielsen Sune G SG Crockford Peter W PW Gauglitz Julia M JM Wing Boswell A BA Ricketts Richard D RD

Nature communications 20171107 1

Geochemical analyses of sedimentary barites (barium sulfates) in the geological record have yielded fundamental insights into the chemistry of the Archean environment and evolutionary origin of microbial metabolisms. However, the question of how barites were able to precipitate from a contemporary ocean that contained only trace amounts of sulfate remains controversial. Here we report dissolved and particulate multi-element and barium-isotopic data from Lake Superior that evidence pelagic barite ...[more]

PMID: 29109481

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Project description:Phytochromes are dimeric biliprotein photoreceptors exhibiting characteristic red/far-red photocycles. Full-length cyanobacterial phytochrome Cph1 from Synechocystis 6803 is soluble initially but tends to aggregate in a concentration-dependent manner, hampering attempts to solve the structure using NMR and crystallization methods. Otherwise, the Cph1 sensory module (Cph1?2), photochemically indistinguishable from the native protein and used extensively in structural and other studies, can be purified to homogeneity in >10 mg amounts at mM concentrations quite easily. Bulk precipitation of full-length Cph1 by ammonium sulfate (AmS) was expected to allow us to produce samples for solid-state magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR from dilute solutions before significant aggregation began. It was not clear, however, what effects the process of partial dehydration might have on the molecular structure. Here we test this by running solid-state MAS NMR experiments on AmS-precipitated Cph1?2 in its red-absorbing Pr state carrying uniformly (13)C/(15)N-labeled phycocyanobilin (PCB) chromophore. 2D (13)C-(13)C correlation experiments allowed a complete assignment of (13)C responses of the chromophore. Upon precipitation, (13)C chemical shifts for most of PCB carbons move upfield, in which we found major changes for C4 and C6 atoms associated with the A-ring positioning. Further, the broad spectral lines seen in the AmS (13)C spectrum reflect primarily the extensive inhomogeneous broadening presumably due to an increase in the distribution of conformational states in the protein, in which less free water is available to partake in the hydration shells. Our data suggest that the effect of dehydration process indeed leads to changes of electronic structure of the bilin chromophore and a decrease in its mobility within the binding pocket, but not restricted to the protein surface. The extent of the changes induced differs from the freezing process of the solution samples routinely used in previous MAS NMR and crystallographic studies. AmS precipitation might nevertheless provide useful protein structure/functional information for full-length Cph1 in cases where neither X-ray crystallography nor conventional NMR methods are available.

Dataset Information

Pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate.

Publications

Pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate.

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