Precambrian body plans oxygen producing bacteria, which led to the massive rise in oxygen levels. The increased oxygen availability allowed it to be used by cells in order to manufacture collagen. Collagen is the key component for cell aggregation, It is a rope-like molecule that “ties” cells together. Oxygen is required for collagen synthesis because ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is essential for this process to occur. A key component in the ascorbic acid molecule is oxygen (chemical formula CHO). Therefore, it is evident that the rise in oxygen is a crucial step to the rise of multicellularity since it is essential for the
Chemistry of ascorbic acid from animal adrenal glands. In 1932 Charles Glen King confirmed that it was indeed the antiscorbutic factor. In 1933, sugar chemist Walter Norman Haworth, working with samples of "hexuronic acid" that Szent-Györgyi had isolated from paprika and sent him in the previous year, deduced the correct structure and optical-isomeric nature of the compound, and in 1934 reported its first synthesis. In reference to the compound's antiscorbutic properties, Haworth and Szent-Györgyi proposed to rename it "a-scorbic acid" for the compound, and later specifically -ascorbic acid. Because of their work, in 1937 the Nobel Prizes for chemistry and medicine were awarded to