Ten years ago, nobody knew that Asgard archaea even existed. In 2015, however, researchers examining deep-sea sediments ...

Who were our earliest ancestors? The answer could lie in a special group of single-celled organisms with a cytoskeleton similar to that of complex organisms, such as animals and plants.

Asgard archaea may have led to the evolution of eukaryotic life ETH Zurich researchers identify actin and microtubule ...

New research sheds light on one of the biggest questions in biology: where did complex life come from? The answer may lie ...

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 ...

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 ...

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

Prokaryotes are organisms whose cells lack a nucleus and other organelles. Prokaryotes are divided into two distinct groups: the bacteria and the archaea, which scientists believe have unique ...

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?

“This should have a major effect on textbook treatment of these subjects.” Since the late 1980s, all life forms have been split into three groups on the phylogenetic tree of life: bacteria, archaea, ...