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The trickster microbes that are shaking up the tree of life

Mysterious groups of archaea — named after Loki and other Norse myths — are stirring debate about the origin of complex creatures, including humans.
  1. Traci Watson

    1. Traci Watson is Nature’s Research Highlights editor in Washington DC.

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Every mythology needs a good trickster, and there are few better than the Norse god Loki. He stirs trouble and insults other gods. He is elusive, anarchic and ambiguous. He is, in other words, the perfect namesake for a group of microbes — the Lokiarchaeota — that is rewriting a fundamental story about life’s early roots.

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Nature 569, 322-324 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01496-w

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