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Archaeal evolution

Uncovering the hidden world of nanosized archaea

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 21, page 638 (2023)Cite this article

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Symbiosis, (derived from Greek συμβίωσις, that is, ‘living together’) is a central driving force in evolution, hypothesized to underlie one of the most important transitions in the evolution of cellular life on Earth: the origin of the eukaryotic cell from an intimate long-term interaction between at least one archaeal and one bacterial partner. Despite the historical importance of symbiosis and our increasing awareness of the significance of symbioses in the functioning of extant ecosystems, much of our knowledge on symbioses remains limited to selected host–symbiont systems. In particular, little is known about the diversity of archaeal symbionts and the interactions they engage in. In fact, until a couple of decades ago, obligate archaeal symbionts were thought be restricted to some methanogenetic lineages.

This changed in 2002 with the discovery of tiny cocci of about 400 nm in an enrichment culture of an autotrophic sulphur-reducing member of the Crenarchaeota — Ignicoccus hospitalis — by Huber et al. Although the tiny coccoid cells could be physically separated from I. hospitalis, any attempts to grow them on their own were unsuccessful. However, a stable co-culture of I. hospitalis together with this small organism could be obtained and revealed its obligate host-dependency. Subsequent analyses confirmed it to represent an archaeal ectosymbiont with a tiny genome of less than 500 kb, which relies on physical contact with its host for growth and survival. In turn, the authors referred to it as Nanoarchaeum equitans, a dwarf archaeon riding a fire sphere.

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References

Original article

  • Huber, H. et al. A new phylum of Archaea represented by a nanosized hyperthermophilic symbiont. Nature 417, 63–67 (2002)

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  • Baker, B. J. et al. Enigmatic, ultrasmall, uncultivated Archaea. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 8806–8811 (2010)

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  • Rinke, C. et al. Insights into the phylogeny and coding potential of microbial dark matter. Nature 499, 431–437 (2013)

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  • Castelle, C. J. et al. Genomic expansion of domain Archaea highlights roles for organisms from new phyla in anaerobic carbon cycling. Curr. Biol. 25, 690–701 (2015)

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Acknowledgements

A.S. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 947317, ASymbEL), the Simons Foundation 735929LPI, https://doi.org/10.46714/735929LPI (Award Number: 811944), and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grant GBMF9741 and GBMF9346.

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  1. Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ, Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Netherlands

    Anja Spang

  2. Department of Evolutionary and Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Anja Spang

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  1. Anja Spang
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Correspondence to Anja Spang.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Spang, A. Uncovering the hidden world of nanosized archaea. Nat Rev Microbiol 21, 638 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00912-3

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