Archaea articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Analyses of multiple phylogenetic marker datasets of Asgard archaea provide insight into the transition from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, specifically placing eukaryotes within Asgard archaea and as a sister lineage to Hodarchaeales.

    • Laura Eme
    • , Daniel Tamarit
    •  & Thijs J. G. Ettema

  • Article |

    ‘Candidatus Methanoliparum’ overexpresses genes encoding alkyl-coenzyme M and methyl-coenzyme M reductases—markers of archaeal multicarbon alkane and methane metabolism—and thrives on a variety of long-chain alkanes and n-alkylcyclohexanes, and n-alkylbenzenes with long n-alkyl (C≥13) moieties.

    • Zhuo Zhou
    • , Cui-jing Zhang
    •  & Lei Cheng

  • Article |

    Bacteria and archaea use cyclic oligoadenylate molecules as part of the CRISPR system for antiviral defence; here, a family of viral enzymes that rapidly degrades cyclic oligoadenylates is identified and biochemically and structurally described.

    • Januka S. Athukoralage
    • , Stephen A. McMahon
    •  & Malcolm F. White

  • Article |

    This work describes the Asgard superphylum, an assemblage of diverse archaea that comprises Odinarchaeota, Heimdallarchaeota, Lokiarchaeota and Thorarchaeota, offering insights into the earliest days of eukaryotic cells and their complex features.

    • Katarzyna Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka
    • , Eva F. Caceres
    •  & Thijs J. G. Ettema

  • Article |

    This study identifies a clade of archaea that is the immediate sister group of eukaryotes in phylogenetic analyses, and that also has a repertoire of proteins otherwise characteristic of eukaryotes—proteins that would have provided the first eukaryotes with a ‘starter kit’ for the genomic and cellular complexity characteristic of the eukaryotic cell.

    • Anja Spang
    • , Jimmy H. Saw
    •  & Thijs J. G. Ettema

  • Letter |

    The structure and function of CetZ, a protein related to both tubulin and FtsZ (the bacterial homologue of tubulin) from the archaeon Haloferax volcanii, is reported and its involvement in the control of cell shape uncovered; it appears that this family of proteins was involved in the control of cell shape long before the evolution of eukaryotes.

    • Iain G. Duggin
    • , Christopher H. S. Aylett
    •  & Jan Löwe

  • Letter |

    When all origins of replication are deleted from the archaeon Haloferax volcanii, homologous recombination is used to initiate DNA replication and the growth rate is accelerated.

    • Michelle Hawkins
    • , Sunir Malla
    •  & Thorsten Allers

  • News & Views |

    The identification of a sea-floor microorganism that single-handedly conducts anaerobic oxidation of methane changes our picture of how the flux of this greenhouse gas from the ocean to the atmosphere is regulated. See Article p.541

    • Samantha B. Joye

  • Letter |

    On the basis of data from other subglacial environments and simulations of the accumulation of methane hydrate in Antarctic sedimentary basins, it seems there could be unsuspected, large stores of methane beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

    • J. L. Wadham
    • , S. Arndt
    •  & C. E. H. Butler

  • Letter |

    The oxidation of formate and water to bicarbonate and H2 is relatively common in microorganisms under anaerobic conditions. But can this reaction sustain growth in an isolated species? Here it is shown that several individual Thermococcus species can use formate oxidation for growth. Moreover, the biochemical basis of this ability is delineated.

    • Yun Jae Kim
    • , Hyun Sook Lee
    •  & Sung Gyun Kang

  • Letter |

    It has been thought that ocean temperatures during the early Palaeoarchaean era (around 3.5 billion years ago) were 55–85 °C. But a recent study indicated that the temperatures might be no higher than 40 °C. Here, studies are reported of the oxygen isotope compositions of phosphates in sediments from the 3.2–3.5-billion-year-old Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa. The findings indicate a well-developed phosphorus cycle and evolved biological activity in an Archaean ocean with temperatures of 26–35 °C.

    • Ruth E. Blake
    • , Sae Jung Chang
    •  & Aivo Lepland

  • Article |

    Although Archaea encode proteasomes highly related to those of eukaryotes, archaeal ubiquitin-like proteins are less conserved and not known to function in protein conjugation, complicating our understanding of the origins of ubiquitination. Two small archaeal modifier proteins, SAMP1 and SAMP2, structurally similar to ubiquitin, are now reported to form protein conjugates in the archaeon Haloferax volcanii.

    • Matthew A. Humbard
    • , Hugo V. Miranda
    •  & Julie A. Maupin-Furlow

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