In 2015, researchers examining deep-sea sediments near the underwater volcano Loki discovered gene fragments indicating a new ...

Scientists reveal the role of hidden microbes called Asgard archaea in the origins of complex life, challenging long-held ...

Asgard archaea emerged as a key piece in the puzzle of how complex life evolved, acting as a potential link between simple archaea and eukaryotes—organisms like plants and animals whose cells contain ...

ETH researchers discovered related structures in Asgard archaea and describe their structure. These experiments show that ...

Ten years ago, nobody knew that Asgard archaea even existed. In 2015, however, researchers examining deep-sea sediments discovered gene fragments that indicated a new and previously undiscovered form ...

One of these involves fusion between cells from domains Archaea and Bacteria: one of the cells involved in the fusion becomes the eukaryote nucleus (Martin & Muller 1998; Martin 2005; Martin et al.

Indeed, archaea and bacteria appear very similar biologically (members of both groups consist of tiny cells without much internal structure) and different from eukaryotes. However, until ...

Without that one-off event, life would still be stuck in its microbial rut. Bacteria and archaea cells just don’t have what it takes to evolve into more complex forms. So what happened?