The division of organisms on the Tree of Life into either a three-domain(3D)tree or a two-domain(2D)tree has been disputed for a long time.Ever since the discovery of Archaea by Carl Woese in 1977 using 16S ribosomal ...The division of organisms on the Tree of Life into either a three-domain(3D)tree or a two-domain(2D)tree has been disputed for a long time.Ever since the discovery of Archaea by Carl Woese in 1977 using 16S ribosomal RNA sequence as the evolutionary marker,there has been a great advance in our knowledge of not only the growing diversity of Archaea but also the evolutionary relationships between different lineages of living organisms.Here,we present this perspective to summarize the progress of archaeal diversity and changing notion of the Tree of Life.Meanwhile,we provide the latest progress in genomics/physiology-based discovery of Asgard archaeal lineages as the closest relative of Eukaryotes.Furthermore,we propose three major directions for future research on exploring the“next one”closest Eukaryote relative,deciphering the function of archaeal eukaryotic signature proteins and eukaryogenesis from both genomic and physiological aspects,and understanding the roles of horizontal gene transfer,viruses,and mobile elements in eukaryogenesis.展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.92251306,32225003,31970105,and 92051102)the Innovation Team Project of Universities in Guangdong Province(No.2020KCXTD023)+1 种基金the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program(JCYJ20200109105010363)This work was partially funded by the US-National Science Foundation grants OCE-2049478 and DBI-2047598 to K.A.
文摘The division of organisms on the Tree of Life into either a three-domain(3D)tree or a two-domain(2D)tree has been disputed for a long time.Ever since the discovery of Archaea by Carl Woese in 1977 using 16S ribosomal RNA sequence as the evolutionary marker,there has been a great advance in our knowledge of not only the growing diversity of Archaea but also the evolutionary relationships between different lineages of living organisms.Here,we present this perspective to summarize the progress of archaeal diversity and changing notion of the Tree of Life.Meanwhile,we provide the latest progress in genomics/physiology-based discovery of Asgard archaeal lineages as the closest relative of Eukaryotes.Furthermore,we propose three major directions for future research on exploring the“next one”closest Eukaryote relative,deciphering the function of archaeal eukaryotic signature proteins and eukaryogenesis from both genomic and physiological aspects,and understanding the roles of horizontal gene transfer,viruses,and mobile elements in eukaryogenesis.
