Archaeal biology articles from across Nature Portfolio

The human gut virome includes understudied viruses that infect archaea. Here, Baquero et al. characterize a temperate archaeal virus that infects the dominant methanogenic archaeon of the human gut, shedding light on archaeal virus-host interactions and highlighting similarities with gut bacteriophages in establishing stable coexistence with their hosts.

DPANN is a widespread and diverse group of archaeal obligate ectosymbionts that depend on their host for proliferation. Here, authors use cryo-ET and proteomics to reveal intercellular proteinaceous nanotubes to facilitate DPANN-host interactions.

DPANN archaea are a group of microorganisms that require direct cell contact with other archaeal host species for growth. Here, Hamm et al. show that a DPANN archaeon engages in parasitic interactions with its host leading to host cell lysis, thus providing experimental evidence of a predatory-like lifestyle for an archaeon.

Methanosuratincola petrocarbonis LWZ-6 is a strict hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic methanogen that does not ferment sugars, peptides or amino acids.

The archaellum, or archaeal ‘flagellum’, includes asparagine-linked glycans that are important for efficient cell motility in archaea through unclear mechanisms. Here, the authors show that glycan truncation leads to clustering of filaments and alterations in cell motility, suggesting that the glycans minimize archaellum filament aggregation that compromises cell motility.

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

This study shows that Haloferax volcanii uses its type IV pili for cell attachment to a surface and mechanical cohesion between cells under flow conditions, thus promoting biofilm development.

This study reports that a short prokaryotic argonaute protein from the archaeon Sulfolobus islandicus and its genetically associated proteins Aga1 and Aga2 confer antiviral defence by abortive infection.

This study shows that FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 have different functions during archaeal cell division.

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.

This month’s Genome Watch highlights the unique evolutionary history, metabolic functions, and newly identified viruses and associated mobile genetic elements for the highly abundant and ubiquitous ammonia-oxidizing archaea.