Archaeal evolution articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes belonged to the phylum Asgardarchaeota, or Asgard archaea. Here, the authors use ancestral sequence reconstruction and experimentally determine the optimal GDP-binding temperature of a translation elongation factor from ancient and extant Asgard archaea, to infer optimal growth temperatures for eukaryotes’ ancestors.

    • Zhongyi Lu
    • , Runyue Xia
    •  & Meng Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The timing of cellular evolution is poorly constrained. Here, the authors used improved molecular dating approaches to study the evolution of the ATP synthase in light of a dated tree of life thereby providing an absolute timescale for cellular evolution including eukaryotic origins.

    • Tara A. Mahendrarajah
    • , Edmund R. R. Moody
    •  & Anja Spang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non-ammonia oxidising Thaumarachaeota lineages are common in acidic soils, but their evolution is unclear. Here, the authors assemble 15 genomes from deeply rooted Thaumarachaeota in topsoils and subsoils, investigating evolutionary divergence in the family Gagatemarchaeaceae.

    • Paul O. Sheridan
    • , Yiyu Meng
    •  & Cécile Gubry-Rangin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacteria of the genus Streptomyces have complex life cycles involving cellular differentiation and multicellular structures that have never been observed in archaea. Here, the authors show that several halophilic archaea display a life cycle resembling that of Streptomyces bacteria, undergoing cellular differentiation into mycelia and spores.

    • Shu-Kun Tang
    • , Xiao-Yang Zhi
    •  & Ping Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacteria can exchange DNA through extracellular appendages (‘mating pili’) in a process known as conjugation. Here, Beltran et al. determine atomic structures by cryo-electron microscopy of a bacterial conjugative pilus and two archaeal pili, showing that the archaeal pili are homologous to bacterial mating pili.

    • Leticia C. Beltran
    • , Virginija Cvirkaite-Krupovic
    •  & Mart Krupovic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sexual reproduction in eukaryotes involves gamete fusion, mediated by fusogenic proteins. Here, the authors identify fusogenic protein homologs encoded within mobile genetic elements in archaeal genomes, solve the crystal structure of one of the proteins, and show that its ectopic expression can fuse mammalian cells, suggesting potential roles in cell-cell fusion and gene exchange.

    • David Moi
    • , Shunsuke Nishio
    •  & Benjamin Podbilewicz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Trace metals have been an important ingredient for life throughout Earth’s history. Here, the authors show that a member of an elusive archaeal lineage (Caldarchaeales or Aigarchaeota) requires tungsten for growth, and provide evidence that tungsten-dependent metabolism played a role in the origin and evolution of this lineage.

    • Steffen Buessecker
    • , Marike Palmer
    •  & Jeremy A. Dodsworth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A study of the first genomes of the marine Hikarchaeia, the closest known relatives of Haloarchaea, is presented. Their inclusion in ancestral reconstructions unveils an intermediate stage in the evolutionary transition from ancestral anaerobic methanogens to modern day aerobic halophiles.

    • Joran Martijn
    • , Max E. Schön
    •  & Thijs J. G. Ettema

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolutionary relationships within Archaea remain unresolved. Here, the authors used genomic approaches to study the Undinarchaeota, a previously uncharacterized clade of DPANN, shed light on their position in an updated archaeal phylogeny and illuminate the history of archaeal genome evolution.

    • Nina Dombrowski
    • , Tom A. Williams
    •  & Anja Spang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemosynthetic microbial communities in hydrothermal environments receiving meteoric and geothermal fluids are understudied. Here, Colman et al. use metagenomics to study one such community from a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, revealing exceptional biodiversity and unique functional potential.

    • Daniel R. Colman
    • , Melody R. Lindsay
    •  & Eric S. Boyd

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sulfolobus islandicus is a model organism within the TACK superphylum of the Archaea. Here, the authors perform a genome-wide analysis of essential genes in this organism, show that the proteinaceous S-layer is not essential, and explore potential stages of evolution of the essential gene repertoire in Archaea.

    • Changyi Zhang
    • , Alex P. R. Phillips
    •  & Rachel J. Whitaker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the absence of complete genomes, the metabolic capabilities of uncultured ARMAN-like archaea have been uncertain. Here, Golyshina et al. apply an enrichment culture technique and find that the ungapped genome of the ARMAN-like archaeon Mia14 has lost key metabolic pathways, suggesting dependence on the host archaeon Cuniculiplasma divulgatum.

    • Olga V. Golyshina
    • , Stepan V. Toshchakov
    •  & Peter N. Golyshin

Browse broader subjects

Browse Archaeal evolution across other nature.com journals