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<p>Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) bacteria contribute to nearly half of global nitrogen loss. However, the driving force responsible for the origin of anammox bacteria remains poorly understood. Here we show that anammox bacteria can oxidize ammonium to N<sub>2</sub> for growth using photoholes—the positive charge carriers generated from photosensitizers—potentially supporting their origin. Such photoholes could have been generated in sunlit benthic environments by cyanobacterial mats and semiconducting minerals under the intense solar radiation of the Late Archaean (3.0–2.5 billion years ago). Moreover, cyanobacterial mats absorbed harmful short-wavelength light for anammox bacteria, while allowing longer-wavelength infrared light to penetrate. Light-driven enrichment of nitrite-reductase-deficient anammox bacteria in long-term-cultured cyanobacterial mats, DNA stable-isotope probing and evolutionary analysis collectively suggest that the ancestral anammox bacteria tended to be photoelectrotrophic instead of nitrite-dependent. Our discovery provides a paradigm shift in our understanding of the origin of ammonium oxidation and may explain the nitrogen loss on early Earth.</p>

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Photoholes within cyanobacterial mats can account for the origin of anammox bacteria and ancient nitrogen loss

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月30日

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  • Lingrui Kong,
  • Ru Zheng,
  • Jinnan Feng,
  • Yiming Feng,
  • Baiyizhuo Chen,
  • Yimin Mao,
  • Jiangwei Wang,
  • Kuo Zhang,
  • Ansheng Chen,
  • Sitong Liu

摘要

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) bacteria contribute to nearly half of global nitrogen loss. However, the driving force responsible for the origin of anammox bacteria remains poorly understood. Here we show that anammox bacteria can oxidize ammonium to N2 for growth using photoholes—the positive charge carriers generated from photosensitizers—potentially supporting their origin. Such photoholes could have been generated in sunlit benthic environments by cyanobacterial mats and semiconducting minerals under the intense solar radiation of the Late Archaean (3.0–2.5 billion years ago). Moreover, cyanobacterial mats absorbed harmful short-wavelength light for anammox bacteria, while allowing longer-wavelength infrared light to penetrate. Light-driven enrichment of nitrite-reductase-deficient anammox bacteria in long-term-cultured cyanobacterial mats, DNA stable-isotope probing and evolutionary analysis collectively suggest that the ancestral anammox bacteria tended to be photoelectrotrophic instead of nitrite-dependent. Our discovery provides a paradigm shift in our understanding of the origin of ammonium oxidation and may explain the nitrogen loss on early Earth.