What Earth’s undefeatable organisms reveal about survival

• Earth's early conditions were extreme and often inhospitable for life, lacking oxygen for two billion years.
• Despite this, microbes evolved and adapted, shaping Earth’s atmosphere and sustaining life continuously.

Microbes have survived Earth's extreme and changing conditions for over three billion years, including periods without oxygen and frozen oceans. By recreating these ancient conditions in the lab, scientists like Betül Kaçar are uncovering how these organisms evolved unique survival strategies.

This research allows us to understand the origins and resilience of life, especially how microbes adapted mechanisms like nitrogen fixation, crucial for sustainability today. Bringing ancient DNA into modern contexts reveals that ancestral enzymes respond differently than modern ones, offering new tools for engineering more resilient living systems.

Studying Earth's ancient life not only helps us prepare for current environmental challenges but may also guide how we approach life on other planets. Betül Kaçar emphasizes that life’s history is a repository of survival solutions that can inform our future.

• Microbes are Earth's fundamental survivors, thriving and evolving in harsh environments for billions of years.
• They preserve life’s survival strategies encoded through evolution, which we can study today.