Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

By A. Spang, Jimmy H. W. Saw, Steffen L. Jørgensen, Katarzyna Zaremba-Niedźwiedzka, J. Martijn, Anders E. Lind, Roel van Eijk, C. Schleper, L. Guy, Thijs J. G. Ettema. Nature, 2015

1,151 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The origin of the eukaryotic cell remains one of the most contentious puzzles in modern biology. Recent studies have provided support for the emergence of the eukaryotic host cell from within the archaeal domain of life, but the identity and nature of the putative archaeal ancestor remain a subject of debate. Here we describe the discovery of ‘Lokiarchaeota’, a novel candidate archaeal phylum, which forms a monophyletic group with eukaryotes in phylogenomic analyses, and whose genomes encode an expanded repertoire of eukaryotic signature proteins that are suggestive of sophisticated membrane remodelling capabilities. Our results provide strong support for hypotheses in which the eukaryotic host evolved from a bona fide archaeon, and demonstrate that many components that underpin eukaryote-specific features were already present in that ancestor. This provided the host with a rich genomic ‘starter-kit’ to support the increase in the cellular and genomic complexity that is characteristic of eukaryotes.

Subfields: Ecology, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/09bd01011de492f7d2d25715b2a11062e1dc188a

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Citations in the corpus

Next-Generation Sequencing — An Overview of the History, Tools, and “Omic” Applications (2016, background): “[203] sequenced uncultivated metagenomes from a deep-sea vent and discov‐ ered novel archaeal genomes in the new phylum that they named ”Lokiarchaeota.”
Linking metagenomics to aquatic microbial ecology and biogeochemical cycles (2019, background): “The Asgard harbormany genes previously thought to be unique to eukaryotes and their discovery has necessitated nothing less than a restructuring of the universal tree of life (Spang et al. 2015; Castelle and Banfield 2018).”
Major New Microbial Groups Expand Diversity and Alter our Understanding of the Tree of Life. (2018, neutral): “As implemented by Carl Woese and collaborators, this work enabled the definition of three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes (Woese and Fox, 1977, Woese et al., 1990).”
Actin and Actin-Binding Proteins. (2016, background): “This “unseen” (not cultured) archaeal cell called Lokiarchaeota has a genuine actin gene and other eukaryotic genes such as Ras-family GTPases (Spang et al. 2015).”
Recovery of nearly 8,000 metagenome-assembled genomes substantially expands the tree of life (2017, neutral): “Zixibacteria, UBP14 (1), TA06, UBP1 (3), UBP2 (6) Cloacimonetes (31), Hyd24-12 (5), WOR-3 (10)”
Physiology of Astroglia. (2018, neutral): “Exocytosis is an evolutionary conserved (appearing probably in Archea) and ubiquitous property of most eukaryotic cells (1657).”