Is there any biological reason an extremophyllic organism could not make a diamond?

In theory, could any organism using protein folding or another biological process "assemble" the diamond allotrope of carbon, if it were at the correct pressure to do so? In other words, could some organism (or colonial organisms?) exist which has grown diamonds analogous to how an oyster grows pearls?

In essence this question comes down to having the right binding energies and sites to make molecular assembly work. And it does not necessarily mean doing this one atom at a time. Even some method of attaching a hydrocarbon or CO2, then stripping away the "impurity" might work?

posted almost 5 years ago

Vogon Poet‭

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