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Diversity, ecology and evolution of Archaea

Nature Microbiology volume 5, pages 887–900 (2020)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 19 May 2020

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Abstract

Compared to bacteria, our knowledge of archaeal biology is limited. Historically, microbiologists have mostly relied on culturing and single-gene diversity surveys to understand Archaea in nature. However, only six of the 27 currently proposed archaeal phyla have cultured representatives. Advances in genomic sequencing and computational approaches are revolutionizing our understanding of Archaea. The recovery of genomes belonging to uncultured groups from the environment has resulted in the description of several new phyla, many of which are globally distributed and are among the predominant organisms on the planet. In this Review, we discuss how these genomes, together with long-term enrichment studies and elegant in situ measurements, are providing insights into the metabolic capabilities of the Archaea. We also debate how such studies reveal how important Archaea are in mediating an array of ecological processes, including global carbon and nutrient cycles, and how this increase in archaeal diversity has expanded our view of the tree of life and early archaeal evolution, and has provided new insights into the origin of eukaryotes.

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Fig. 1: Archaeal genomic diversity.
Fig. 2: Archaeal ecological roles.
Fig. 3: Archaea metabolic potential.
Fig. 4: An updated archaeal tree of life.
Fig. 5: Diversity of archaeal MCR proteins.

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Acknowledgements

This review was supported by the National Science Foundation Systematics and Biodiversity Sciences award no. 1737298 (to B.J.B.), grant no. NSF-OCE-1431598 (to K.G.L.) and the Simons Foundation grant no. 404586 (to K.G.L.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Science, Marine Science Institute, University of Texas Austin, Port Aransas, TX, USA

    Brett J. Baker, Valerie De Anda, Kiley W. Seitz & Nina Dombrowski

  2. Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Alyson E. Santoro

  3. Microbiology Department, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Karen G. Lloyd

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B.J.B. and A.E.S. wrote this review and all authors provided input. B.J.B., K.W.S. and V.D.A. generated the phylogeny. B.J.B., K.G.L., V.D.A. and N.D. generated the figures.

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Supplementary Data

List of genomes included in analyses in Figs. 1 and 4.

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Baker, B.J., De Anda, V., Seitz, K.W. et al. Diversity, ecology and evolution of Archaea. Nat Microbiol 5, 887–900 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-0715-z

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