Archaeal evolution articles from across Nature Portfolio

The genomes of Asgard archaea, the closest prokaryotic relatives to eukaryotes, are larger than those of other archaea and contain multiple genes seemingly acquired from bacteria. Here, Manzano-Morales and Gabaldón quantify gene duplication, loss, and transfer events in Asgard genomes, showing that gene duplications, rather than horizontal gene transfers, are the primary drivers behind the increased genome sizes.

The Asgard archaea have become a cornerstone of archaeal research, particularly for studies aiming to unravel the origin and early evolution of eukaryotes. This Review outlines the current state of the research field focusing on these intriguing microorganisms and discusses future research directions aiming to resolve their diversity, ecology, cell biology and evolution.

A structural catalogue of the Asgard archaeal pangenome reveals hundreds of eukaryotic-like proteins that suggest a higher degree of cellular complexity in the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes.

Many thermophiles that are abundant in geothermal systems have never been cultivated and are poorly understood. Here, Lai et al. describe the cultivation of one such organism, a deeply branching member of the archaeal phylum Thermoproteota, and provide evidence that it has evolved to specialize in branched-chain amino acid metabolism.

HORBEC are protein complexes involved in the regulation of redox balance and energy conservation. The authors develop a bioinformatic tool for HORBEC annotation in bacterial and archaeal genomes and reconstruct the evolutionary history of these fundamental enzymes.

The cell cycle of the archaeon Saccharolobus islandicus displays similarities to that of eukaryotic cells. Here, the authors use transcriptomic analysis of synchronized cultures to show that various metabolic pathways, cell motility, and antiviral defense systems are cell cycle-regulated in this organism.

Updated phylogenetic analyses yield a more nuanced view of the evolution of the DPANN archaea, a diverse superphylum of enigmatic and symbiotic microorganisms with a debated placement on the tree of life.

This study shows that archaea produce catalytically active ultraminimal as well as hybrid [FeFe] hydrogenases.

In this Journal Club, Anja Spang discusses the discovery of nanosized archaea, transforming our knowledge of archaeal phylogeny and shedding light on their roles in ecology and evolution.

Three different studies identify Asgardarchaeota-linked virus genomes that share commonalities with both prokaryotic and eukaryotic viruses, yet they represent independent phylogenetic groups.

This study set out to resolve the differences in the inferred Archaea–Bacteria branch length.

This study reports the cultivation of a member of the Asgard archaea, which are the closest living relatives of the cells that gave rise to eukaryotes.