On the rocks: nutrient uptake from the planetary crust

Multicellular plants and animals which characterise the modern biosphere are but a recent addition to the diversity of life on the Earth. For approximately 3 billion years of Earth’s history, the land masses were colonised exclusively by microorganisms. For these early colonisers, the rocks which comprise the planet’s crust were an essential source of nutrients without which the Earth’s surface would have been uninhabitable. I have used a technique known as proteomics to investigate the cellular mechanisms involved in nutrient uptake from volcanic rock. I will discuss the results of this study with particular emphasis on the apparent requirement for tight regulatory control on both toxic heavy metals and essential nutrients in rocky environments.