Collagen-eating microbes may explain gaps in fossil record
Researchers led by the University of Cambridge traced the evolution of collagenase genes—enzymes that break down collagen—through 700 bacterial genomes and found that collagenases originated in anaerobic microbes but spread to aerobic bacteria around the transition between the Ediacaran and Cambrian periods. The researchers argue this spread coincides with a significant decline in soft-tissue fossil preservation, as the ability to rapidly degrade collagen-bearing tissues reduced fossilization potential. Their results, published in Current Biology, suggest that the acquisition of collagen-degrading enzymes by microbes may have shaped the fossil record of soft tissues across Earth's history.
