newly discovered asgard archaea, the origin of complex life
Microbiology’s for the first time have successfully grown Asgard archaea microbes- the origin of all plants, animals, and many single-celled organisms. Asgard-like archaea might be the ancestors of eukaryotes, which are the evolutionary branch of human life.
Science magazine’s December 21 2022 issue reported that “Thijs Ettema, an environmental microbiologist at Wageningen University, discovered eukaryoticlike genes in strange archaea from sediment samples collected by Christa Schleper, now an environmental microbiologist at the University of Vienna, and her student, Steffen Jørgensen.”
An electron microscope reveals complex internal structures suggestive of those in our own cells which have been grown for the first time high concentrations to study their internal details which possess genes once thought to exist only in more complex organisms, according to the Nature report.
In 2015, Thijs Ettema, an environmental microbiologist at Wageningen University, came up with the idea that these asgard-like archaea might be ancestors of eukaryotes, the microbe known to possess internal membranes and organelles on the evolutionary path to humans. It was later confirmed by Masaru Nobu, a microbiologist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
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