Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS)

Abstract:
Metabolism mediates the global biogeochemical cycles and provides the building blocks for all cells. I will illustrate how we can use the continuity of life to reconstruct trees of functional metabolic networks. I will first show how we can trace the evolution of CO2-fixation to the root of the tree of life, and then examine the metabolic evolution of ecosystems in the oligotrophic oceans. Together these examples highlight how building bridges between chemistry, systems biology and Earth science can give us new insights into the co-evolution of Earth and the biosphere.