CaltechAUTHORS
Published March 11, 2022 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Biomineralization: Integrating mechanism and evolutionary history

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • 2. ROR icon Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • 3. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 4. ROR icon Scientific Centre of Monaco
  • 5. ROR icon University of Haifa
  • 6. ROR icon Biogéosciences
  • 7. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 8. ROR icon Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • 9. ROR icon University of California, Berkeley
  • 10. ROR icon Harvard University
  • 11. ROR icon Goethe University Frankfurt

Abstract

Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) biomineralizing organisms have played major roles in the history of life and the global carbon cycle during the past 541 Ma. Both marine diversification and mass extinctions reflect physiological responses to environmental changes through time. An integrated understanding of carbonate biomineralization is necessary to illuminate this evolutionary record and to understand how modern organisms will respond to 21st century global change. Biomineralization evolved independently but convergently across phyla, suggesting a unity of mechanism that transcends biological differences. In this review, we combine CaCO₃ skeleton formation mechanisms with constraints from evolutionary history, omics, and a meta-analysis of isotopic data to develop a plausible model for CaCO₃ biomineralization applicable to all phyla. The model provides a framework for understanding the environmental sensitivity of marine calcifiers, past mass extinctions, and resilience in 21st century acidifying oceans. Thus, it frames questions about the past, present, and future of CaCO₃ biomineralizing organisms.

Additional Information

© 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). Received: 17 August 2021. Accepted: 6 January 2022. We thank the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University for funding and hosting the workshop "Biomineralization: integrating mechanism and evolutionary history" on 11 and 12 July 2019. All coauthors of this paper participated in intense discussions for 2 days in person and 2 years by email to achieve consensus. Thus, this paper is the direct result of that workshop. Thank you, Radcliffe! Author contributions: Conceptualization: P.U.P.A.G. and A.H.K. Methodology: P.U.P.A.G., K.D.B., and A.H.K. Meta-analysis: K.D.B. and N.B. Consensus model development: All coauthors. Writing—original draft: P.U.P.A.G., K.D.B., and A.H.K. Writing—review and editing: All coauthors. The authors declare that they have no financial or other competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper, including the complete meta-analysis of carbon and oxygen isotope data and code, are available in the public domain on https://osf.io/rvc58/ and cited as (241).

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Additional details

Identifiers

PMCID
PMC8906573
Eprint ID
113809
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20220309-982087000

Related works

Describes
https://osf.io/rvc58/ (URL)

Funding

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

Dates

Created
2022-03-09
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-03-23
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Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)