It is a member of the Asgard archaea.
One of the big mysteries in the field of biology is how the complex organisms that roam on Earth first arose. Now, a collaboration between the working groups of Christa Schleper at the University of Vienna and Martin Pilhofer at ETH Zurich may have found the answer,“The researchers succeeded in cultivating a special archaeon and characterizing it more precisely using microscopic methods.
“The genetic material of eukaryotes, for example, is packaged in a cell nucleus and the cells also have a large number of other compartments. Cell shape and transport within the eukaryotic cell are also based on an extensive cytoskeleton,” explained the statement.The cellular structure of a newly cultured Asgard archaeon.Today, most theories speculate that archaea and bacteria played a central role in this process.
“In 2015, genomic studies of deep-sea environmental samples discovered the group of the so-called "Asgard archaea", which in the tree of life represent the closest relatives of eukaryotes. The first images of Asgard cells were published in 2020 from enrichment cultures by a Japanese group,” further stated the press release.
“This suggests that extensive cytoskeletal structures arose in archaea before the appearance of the first eukaryotes and fuels evolutionary theories around this important and spectacular event in the history of life,” further stated the press release.Now, the scientists hope to use the new imaging methods to investigate the close interactions between Asgard archaea and their bacterial partners.
"It has taken six long years to obtain a stable and highly enriched culture, but now we can use this experience to perform many biochemical studies and to cultivate other Asgard archaea as well,” concluded Schleper.Asgard archaea are considered to be the closest known relatives of eukaryotes. Their genomes contain hundreds of eukaryotic signature proteins , which inspired hypotheses on the evolution of the eukaryotic cell.
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