Study finds proteins grew more oxidised over Earth's history
A study in the journal Nature Communications reports that proteins across the tree of life became more oxidised over Earth's history. The change was strongest around the Great Oxidation Event, about 2.4 billion years ago.
The authors say this fits the idea that evolution favoured protein sequences with lower energy. The work links the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere to the chemistry of proteins in living things. The study is peer-reviewed. The authors describe the result as consistent with that idea, not as direct proof, and only a short summary of the work was available for this post, so the strength of the evidence is not clear.