Was hydrogen peroxide present before the arrival of oxygenic photosynthesis? The important role of iron(II) in the Archean ocean

Abstract

We address the chemical/biological history of H2O2 back at the times of the Archean eon (2.5–3.9 billion years ago (Gya)). During the Archean eon the pO2 was million-fold lower than the present pO2, starting to increase gradually from 2.3 until 0.6 Gya, when it reached ca. 0.2 bar. The observation that some anaerobic organisms can defend themselves against O2 has led to the view that early organisms could do the same before oxygenic photosynthesis had developed at about 3 Gya. This would require the anaerobic generation of H2O2, and here we examine the various mechanisms which were suggested in the literature for this. Given the concentration of Fe2+ at 20–200 μM in the Archean ocean, the estimated half-life of H2O2 is ca. 0.7 s. The oceanic H2O2 concentration was practically zero. We conclude that early organisms were not exposed to H2O2 before the arrival of oxygenic photosynthesis.

Keywords

• Archean
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Radiation
• oxidation‐reduction (redox)
• Fenton reaction