Abstract
Archaea are a unique system for investigating the diversity of life. There are the most diverse group of organisms with the longest evolutionary history of life on Earth. Phylogenomic investigations reveal the complex evolutionary history of Archaea, overturning longstanding views of the history of life. They exist in the harshest environments and benign conditions, providing a system to investigate the basis for living in extreme environments. They are frequently members of microbial communities, albeit generally rare. Archaea were central in the evolution of Eukaryotes and can be used as a proxy for studying life on other planets. Future advances will depend not only upon phylogenomic studies but also on a better understanding of isolation and cultivation techniques.
Highlights
Archaea are the most genetically diverse taxa of life (Eme and Doolittle, 2015)
After three seasons, each one represented by one metagenomic analysis on a dome (AD1, AD2, and AD3), the results show a vast diversity of members of the Archaea domain
It has been over 40 years since Archaea were discovered, and recognition of their importance in biology has increased tremendously
Summary
Archaea are the most genetically diverse taxa of life (Eme and Doolittle, 2015). They live in exceedingly diverse habitats, including the most environmentally extreme (Baker et al, 2020). Archaea are foundational in the evolutionary origins of Eukaryotes (Spang et al, 2015; Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka et al, 2017) Despite their centrality in the diversity and natural history of life, Archaea were unknown for much of the early history of biological investigation. The discovery of two ancient lineages of prokaryotes, rather than one, overturned understanding of the history of life on Earth (Woese and Fox, 1977; Spang et al, 2017) and continues to challenge perspectives on the genetic basis of living systems (Oren, 2004). Archaeal model systems provide uniquely powerful insights into genetics and the evolution of genetic complexity (Williams et al, 2013) They provide a rich comparative genetic history since Archaea are more diverse than both bacteria and eukaryotes, demonstrating the scope of genetic and phenotypic possibilities that would otherwise be unknown in their absence.
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