Properties of cyanobacterial UV-absorbing pigments suggest their evolution was driven by optimizing photon dissipation rather than photoprotection

摘要: An ancient repertoire of UV absorbing pigments which survive today in the phylogenetically oldest extant photosynthetic organisms cyanobacteria point to a direction evolutionary adaptation and their associated biota from largely UVC Archean covering ever more longer wavelength visible Phanerozoic.Such scenario implies selection photon dissipation rather than photoprotection over history life.This is consistent with thermodynamic theory origin evolution life suggests that most important hallmark biological has been Earths surface organic pigment molecules water absorb dissipate completely prevailing solar spectrum.In this article we compare set photophysical photochemical biosynthetic other germane properties two dominant classes cyanobacterial mycosporine like amino acids MAAs scytonemins.Pigment wavelengths maximum absorption correspond time dependence Earth spectrum proffer as evidence for on Earth.