Abstract
The concept of critical salinity, which postulates a sharp change in abiotic and biotic processes at a salinity of approximately 5–8‰ (Khlebovich, 1974), has been expanded in the light of new evidence concerning the “RNA world,” the emergence of life in a potassium-rich environment, and the role of the sodium pump in the colonization of the modern sodium-rich oceans by animals. Critical salinity is assumed to be the level of salinity at which the sodium pump emerged in the ancestors of modern animals experiencing an increase of sodium content in the environment. It is proposed that the preceding processes, which occurred in potassium-rich environment, should be considered within the framework of protoevolution.
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Original Russian Text © V.V. Khlebovich, 2015, published in Uspekhi Sovremennoi Biologii, 2015, Vol. 135, No. 1, pp. 18–20.
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Khlebovich, V.V. Critical salinity as a marker of transition from the potassium era of life development to the sodium era. Biol Bull Rev 5, 308–310 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079086415040039
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079086415040039