DOCSLIB.ORG

Top Evolution Stories in 2015 Three Science Tabloids Picked the Top Evolution Stories

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Top Evolution Stories in 2015 Three Science Tabloids Picked the Top Evolution Stories Disclosure of things evolutionists don’t want you to know Volume 20 Issue 4 www.ScienceAgainstEvolution.info January 2016 Top Evolution Stories in 2015 Three science tabloids picked the top evolution stories. Here’s our review of 2015’s top evolution fossil record isn’t consistent with Darwin’s notion stories as determined by three science tabloids. of gradual evolution. (8) In 2000, Scientific The three stories about evolution that made American published Tatersall’s controversial Science News’ list of top 25 science stories in notion that there wasn’t a simple, linear evolution 2015 were #3 (Homo naledi), #8 (Lokiarchaeota) from ape-like ancestor to modern man. (9) In and #22 (E. coli mistake). Discover’s top 100 list 2002, their Editor-in-Chief, John Rennie, included #2 (Homo naledi), #6 (prehistoric tool published his “15 Answers to Creationist making), #12 (Brontosaurus), #20 (Chilesaurus), Nonsense,” in which he presented 15 good #28 (oldest Homo fossil), #38 (frilled dinosaurs), arguments against the theory of evolution, and #40 (SETI), #53 (Little Foot), #61 (Pulanesaura), failed to refute any of them. 1 (10) In 2005, they #65 (Australopithecus deyiremeda) , #71 (life on covered the troubling (to evolutionists) discovery Europa), #73 (soft dinosaur tissue), #75 (octopus of Homo floresiensis months after we reported genome), #81 (Ichibengops), #99 (four-legged how it was inconsistent with the prevailing theory snake fossil). Not content to limit itself to 2015, of human evolution. 2 (11) Also in 2005, they Scientific American looked back over their entire claimed that penguins are a poor example of 170 years of publishing in their retrospective of intelligent design, because it is stupid for them to most important science articles. live in Antarctica the way they do. Apparently, they thought their January, 2008, Scientific American’s Picks inane article titled, “Cooking Up Bigger Brains,” Scientific American picked only 11 significant wasn’t worth mentioning—but we did! 3 Were they evolution stories over the past 170 years—none too embarrassed to mention their January, 2009, of which were less than 10 years old, and none of “SPECIAL ISSUE on the Most Powerful Idea in which were very important, so let’s mention them Science” devoted to evolution? We had a field day briefly just to get them out of the way. with that one! 4 What about their 2014 “Special Evolution Issue” devoted to “How We Became (1) In 1877, they reprinted an article from Mind Human,” in which they said practically everything in which Charles Darwin noticed that some previously believed about human evolution was children develop their intellect faster than others. wrong? We loved that issue! 5 (2) In 1950, Dobzhansky discovered that creatures are influenced by heredity and 1 environment; which is significant, but hardly Please see our July and August, 2002, issues of qualifies as an evolution story. (3) In 1958, Lorenz Disclosure titled “No Nonsense”, claimed that behavior evolves, too. (4) In 1978, http://scienceagainstevolution.info/v6i10f.htm and “No they published an article saying that natural Nonsense - Part 2”, http://scienceagainstevolution.info/v6i11f.htm selection operates on groups rather than 2 individuals. (5) In 1959, they examined how much Disclosure, November 2004, “Homo floresiensis”, http://scienceagainstevolution.info/v9i2n.htm public acceptance of evolution had increased 3 since the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. (6) In 1982, Disclosure, February, 2008, “Half-baked Evolution”, http://scienceagainstevolution.info/v12i5n.htm they did a story on the Leakey family and their 4 fossil discoveries. (7) In 1994, they presented Disclosure, January 2009, “Scientific American’s Stephen Jay Gould’s Punctuated Equilibrium Evolution Issue”, theory, which was an attempt to explain why the http://scienceagainstevolution.info/v13i4f.htm 5 Disclosure, September 2014, “Wrong All Along”, 1 Scientific American began publishing 14 years New York led a project that unearthed 3.3- before Darwin’s theory was published, and they million-year-old stone implements in Kenya thought only 11 of their evolution articles were (SN: 6/13/15, p. 6), clear evidence that East worth mentioning in their 170-year retrospective. African hominids from Lucy’s era made them Maybe they are finally realizing that twenty-first too. Until Harmand’s report, stone tools had century scientific evidence is overwhelmingly been dated to no more than about 2.6 million against the theory of evolution! They didn’t years ago. 8 mention any of the stories Science News and Discover thought were important last year. Here’s the picture that “proves” it: Homo Naledi and Stone Tools Science News thought that the third most important science story in 2015 had to do with the discovery of new hominid fossils. The printed version of the story, on page 19 of the December 26 issue was titled, “New Homo species hauled from a cave in South Africa—Origins of the genus remain fuzzy.” The on-line version of the story was titled, “Year in review: Early human kin could shake up family tree—Origins of the genus remain fuzzy.” They were talking about the discovery of Homo naledi, which we told you about in October. 6 The first paragraph of the story is fascinating. Scientists trying to untangle the human evolutionary family’s ancient secrets welcomed a new set of tantalizing and controversial finds this year. A series of fossil discoveries offered It is obviously a tool that is obviously 3.3 potentially important insights into the origins of million years old! ☺ It must have been a really the human genus, Homo. Most notably, a group good tool because it held its edge so well for 3.3 of South African fossils triggered widespread million years! (I wish the tools in my workshop excitement accompanied by head-scratching would stay sharp for 3.3 million years! ☺) and vigorous debate. 7 The casual reader might not notice that the This introduction was amusing because, as we Homo naledi fossils were found in South Africa, told you last October, professional scientists didn’t and this “tool” was found in Kenya (which is welcome the discovery at all. The two main nowhere near South Africa), so it has absolutely professional journals, Science and Nature, nothing to do with Homo naledi. Why connect the dismissed it as unimportant. Yes, National two stories the way Science News did? Geographic and Nova made a big deal about it— but they were the ones who paid for the research, Discover thought both stories were important, so they weren’t biased at all! ☺ but correctly treated them separately as stories #2 and #6 on their list. Discover gave a better Because it was a year-end review, most of the summary of the Homo naledi discovery. Science News article was a reprint of previously published material; but they did throw in one new Media hoopla surrounding speculation piece of information. about H. naledi’s behavior distracted attention from what made the discovery so scientifically There’s one big discovery this year that important: the unprecedented quantity of bones. scientists can agree on: The making of stone Ancient hominin fossils are rare, and those from tools originated before the Homo genus did. early members of our own genus, Homo, are Sonia Harmand of Stony Brook University in rarer still. So it is all the more astonishing that Berger’s team recovered more than 1,500 fossils, from 15 individuals, including a fully http://www.scienceagainstevolution.info/v18i12f.htm articulated hand — the first ever found for 6 Disclosure, October 2015, “Homo naledi”, early Homo. http://scienceagainstevolution.info/v20i1n.htm H. naledi has a mix of primitive and modern 7 Bruce Bower, Science News, December 15, 2015, anatomy, with an upper body suited for “Year in review: Early human kin could shake up climbing trees and a lower body, particularly its family tree”, https://www.sciencenews.org/node/191200?mode=pick &context=166 8 ibid. 2 feet, capable of walking long distances. The DNA from sediment (SN: 5/30/15, p. 6). stunner is H. naledi’s cranium: It’s shaped like Though no one has identified an actual cell yet, the later, more advanced Homo erectus, but — the new phylum appears to mingle genes similar with less than half the volume of our own — is to those in modern eukaryotes and genes from tiny for its 5-foot-tall body. archaea, the sister group to bacteria. Analyses … suggest the cells have dynamic structures that The team will attempt to establish the could have engulfed bacteria long ago. 11 fossils’ age through alternative methods in the According to Science News, nobody found a coming months. The information is crucial for cell, but the structure of the cells they didn’t find understanding whether H. naledi is a primitive was analyzed! ☺ We had to go back to the actual human displaying a behavior otherwise report in Nature to get the straight scoop. The unknown until much later in hominin evolution, abstract of the Nature article says, or a relatively modern human with a primitive anatomy that challenges conventional ideas The origin of the eukaryotic cell remains about how our genus developed. one of the most contentious puzzles in modern Regardless of the age, Berger said earlier biology. Recent studies have provided support this year, before publishing the H. for the emergence of the eukaryotic host cell naledi discovery, the fossils will force from within the archaeal domain of life, but paleoanthropology to rethink long-held theories the identity and nature of the putative archaeal about human evolution. 9 ancestor remain a subject of debate. Here we describe the discovery of ‘Lokiarchaeota’, a Regarding the rock found in Kenya, if this rock novel candidate archaeal phylum, which forms really is a tool (as Discover believes it to be) and if a monophyletic group with eukaryotes in the rock really is 3.3 million years old (as Discover phylogenomic analyses, and whose genomes believes it to be) then man was not the first encode an expanded repertoire of eukaryotic primate to use tools.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Two Domains of Life, Not Three?
    Asgard Archaea Two domains of life, not three? A picture of visual interpretation of the Wagner’s opera Das Rheingold, a part of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen Loki's Castle is a field of five active hydrothermal vents in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, located at 73 degrees north on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Greenland and Norway at a depth of 2,352 metres The vents were discovered in 2008 by a multinational scientific expedition of the university of Bergen, and are the most northerly black smokers to date. The five active chimneys of Loki's Castle are venting water as hot as 300 °C and sit on a vast mound of sulfide minerals. The vent field was given the name Loki's Castle as its shape reminded its discoverers of a fantasy castle. The reference is to the ancient Norse god of trickery, Loki. The top three feet (1 m) of a vent chimney almost 40 feet (12 m) tall at Loki's Castle in mid-July 2008. Visible at left is the arm of a remotely operated vehicle, reaching in to take fluid samples. Loki’s Castle Wents Loki's Castle - a field of five active hydrothermal vents in the mid-Atlantic Ocean - at 73 degrees north on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge - at a depth of 2,352 meters In Norse mythology, Loki is a cunning trickster who has the ability to change his shape and sex. Loki is represented as the companion of the great gods Odin and Thor. Preliminary observations have shown the warm area around the Loki's Castle vents to be alive with diverse and apparently unique microorganisms, unlike vent communities observed elsewhere.
    [Show full text]
  • Lokiarchaeota: Biologists Discover 'Missing Link' Microorganism
    Home About Us News Archive Copyright Privacy Policy Contact Us Newsletter RSS HOME ASTRONOMY SPACE EXPLORATION ARCHAEOLOGY PALEONTOLOGY BIOLOGY PHYSICS Lokiarchaeota: Biologists Discover ‘Missing Link’ Microorganism May 7, 2015 by Sci-News.com « PREVIOUS Published in A team of biologists, co-led by Dr Lionel Guy and Dr Thijs J. G. Ettema from Biology Uppsala University in Sweden, has discovered a new group of Tagged as microorganisms that represents an intermediate form in-between the Archaea simple cells of bacteria and the complex cell types of eukaryotes. Bacteria Eukaryote Lokiarchaeota Follow Like 16k Share Tweet 12 Like 58 41 You Might Like Bottlenose Dolphins Form Highly Complex Networks of Friends Rorqual Whales This false-color image shows a cell of thermophilic methanogenic archaea. Image credit: University of Have Unique California Museum of Paleontology. Stretchy Nerves In 1977, biochemist Dr Carl Woese and his colleagues at the University of Illinois described an entirely new group of organisms, the Archaea (originally found in extreme environments, such as hydrothermal vents and terrestrial hot springs). The scientists were studying relationships among the prokaryotes using DNA Extinction of sequences, and found that Archaea have distinct molecular characteristics World’s Largest separating them from bacteria as well as from eukaryotes. They proposed that Herbivores May Lead to Empty life can be divided into three domains: Eukaryota, Eubacteria, and Landscapes, Say Archaebacteria. Researchers Despite that archaeal cells were simple and small like bacteria, scientists found that Archaea were more closely related to organisms with complex cell types, a group collectively known as ‘eukaryotes.’ This observation has puzzled Sichuan Bush biologists for years.
    [Show full text]
  • Origin and Evolution of Eukaryotic Compartmentalization
    TESI DOCTORAL UPF 2016 Origin and evolution of eukaryotic compartmentalization Alexandros Pittis Director Dr. Toni Gabaldon´ Comparative Genomics Group Bioinformatics and Genomics Department Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) To my father Stavros for the PhD he never did Acknowledgments Looking back at the years of my PhD in the Comparative Genomics group at CRG, I feel it was equally a process of scientific, as well as personal development. All this time I was very privileged to be surrounded by people that offered me their generous support in both fronts. And they were available in the very moments that I was fighting more myself than the unsolvable (anyway) comparative genomics puzzles. I hope that in the future I will have many times the chance to express them my appreciation, way beyond these few words. First, to Toni, my supervisor, for all his support, and patience, and confidence, and respect, especially at the moments that things did not seem that promising. He offered me freedom, to try, to think, to fail, to learn, to achieve that few enjoy during their PhD, and I am very thankful to him. Then, to my good friends and colleagues, those that I found in the group already, and others that joined after me. A very special thanks to Marinita and Jaime, for all their valuable time, and guidance and paradigm, which nevertheless I never managed to follow. They have both marked my phylogenomics path so far and I cannot escape. To Les and Salvi, my fellow students and pals at the time for all that we shared; to Gab and Fran and Dam, for
    [Show full text]
  • Spatial Separation of Ribosomes and DNA in Asgard Archaeal Cells ✉ ✉ Burak Avcı 1,2 , Jakob Brandt3, Dikla Nachmias4, Natalie Elia4, Mads Albertsen 3, Thijs J
    www.nature.com/ismej BRIEF COMMUNICATION OPEN Spatial separation of ribosomes and DNA in Asgard archaeal cells ✉ ✉ Burak Avcı 1,2 , Jakob Brandt3, Dikla Nachmias4, Natalie Elia4, Mads Albertsen 3, Thijs J. G. Ettema 2, Andreas Schramm1,5 and Kasper Urup Kjeldsen1 © The Author(s) 2021 The origin of the eukaryotic cell is a major open question in biology. Asgard archaea are the closest known prokaryotic relatives of eukaryotes, and their genomes encode various eukaryotic signature proteins, indicating some elements of cellular complexity prior to the emergence of the first eukaryotic cell. Yet, microscopic evidence to demonstrate the cellular structure of uncultivated Asgard archaea in the environment is thus far lacking. We used primer-free sequencing to retrieve 715 almost full-length Loki- and Heimdallarchaeota 16S rRNA sequences and designed novel oligonucleotide probes to visualize their cells in marine sediments (Aarhus Bay, Denmark) using catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH). Super-resolution microscopy revealed 1–2 µm large, coccoid cells, sometimes occurring as aggregates. Remarkably, the DNA staining was spatially separated from ribosome-originated FISH signals by 50–280 nm. This suggests that the genomic material is condensed and spatially distinct in a particular location and could indicate compartmentalization or membrane invagination in Asgard archaeal cells. The ISME Journal; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-021-01098-3 INTRODUCTION cells in marine sediments [8] yet methodical limitations did not The origin of the eukaryotic cell is a major unresolved puzzle in allow to discern single cells and to draw any in-depth conclusion the history of life.
    [Show full text]
  • Archaea and the Origin of Eukaryotes
    REVIEWS Archaea and the origin of eukaryotes Laura Eme, Anja Spang, Jonathan Lombard, Courtney W. Stairs and Thijs J. G. Ettema Abstract | Woese and Fox’s 1977 paper on the discovery of the Archaea triggered a revolution in the field of evolutionary biology by showing that life was divided into not only prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Rather, they revealed that prokaryotes comprise two distinct types of organisms, the Bacteria and the Archaea. In subsequent years, molecular phylogenetic analyses indicated that eukaryotes and the Archaea represent sister groups in the tree of life. During the genomic era, it became evident that eukaryotic cells possess a mixture of archaeal and bacterial features in addition to eukaryotic-specific features. Although it has been generally accepted for some time that mitochondria descend from endosymbiotic alphaproteobacteria, the precise evolutionary relationship between eukaryotes and archaea has continued to be a subject of debate. In this Review, we outline a brief history of the changing shape of the tree of life and examine how the recent discovery of a myriad of diverse archaeal lineages has changed our understanding of the evolutionary relationships between the three domains of life and the origin of eukaryotes. Furthermore, we revisit central questions regarding the process of eukaryogenesis and discuss what can currently be inferred about the evolutionary transition from the first to the last eukaryotic common ancestor. Sister groups Two descendants that split The pioneering work by Carl Woese and colleagues In this Review, we discuss how culture- independent from the same node; the revealed that all cellular life could be divided into three genomics has transformed our understanding of descendants are each other’s major evolutionary lines (also called domains): the archaeal diversity and how this has influenced our closest relative.
    [Show full text]
  • Newly Found Microbe Is Close Relative of Complex Life - BBC News
    Newly found microbe is close relative of complex life - BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32610177 Cookies on the BBC website We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. We also use cookies to ensure we show you advertising that is relevant to you. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the BBC website. However, if you would like to, you can change your cookie settings at any time. Continue Change settings Find out more News Sport Weather Shop Earth More Home Video World UK Business Tech Science Magazine Entertainment & Arts Health In PicturesMore ADVERTISEMENT Science & Environment By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website 6 May 2015 Science & Environment The new group of archaea was discovered in sediments along the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge A newly discovered life form could help resolve one of the most contentious conundrums in modern biology. All organisms on Earth are classified as either prokaryotes, which have simple cells, or eukaryotes, which have larger, more complex cells. But the two cell types are so divergent that understanding how one evolved from the other has foxed biologists. The new microbes, reported in Nature journal, go some way to bridging that gap. They have been named Lokiarchaeota, partly after the Loki's Castle volcanic vent system lying 15km away from the site where the microbes' genetic material was isolated in cold marine sediments of the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. 09.05.2015 14:32 Newly found microbe is close relative of complex life - BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32610177 Domain names Prokaryotes are single-celled organisms and comprise all bacteria and archaea (a group of microbes that were once considered to be bacteria, but now form a separate domain of life).
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence Supporting a Viral Origin of the Eukaryotic Nucleus
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/679175; this version posted June 21, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 1 Evidence supporting a viral origin of the eukaryotic nucleus 2 3 4 Dr Philip JL Bell 5 Microbiogen Pty Ltd 6 Correspondence should be addressed to Email [email protected] 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Keywords: Viral eukaryogenesis, nucleus, eukaryote origin, viral factory, mRNA capping, phylogeny 26 27 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/679175; this version posted June 21, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 28 Abstract 29 30 The defining feature of the eukaryotic cell is the possession of a nucleus that uncouples transcription 31 from translation. This uncoupling of transcription from translation depends on a complex process 32 employing hundreds of eukaryotic specific genes acting in concert and requires the 7- 33 methylguanylate (m7G) cap to prime eukaryotic mRNA for splicing, nuclear export, and cytoplasmic 34 translation. The origin of this complex system is currently a paradox since it is not found or needed 35 in prokaryotic cells which lack nuclei, yet it was apparently present and fully functional in the Last 36 Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA).
    [Show full text]
  • A Scientific Literature Review Comic by Lilja Strang
    A scientific literature review comic by Lilja Strang In Norse mythology all of life is contained within nine realms. These realms are connected by Yggdrasil, or the World Tree. A similar concept exists in biology. It’s called the tree of life and it shows the evolutionary connections between all life on earth. These two trees have more in common than most people think. To begin our story, think back to your earliest biology class. You probably saw either the 1959 tree of life, organized into Carl Woese—1990 either 5 kingdoms, or the 1990 tree with 3 domains. The 5 kingdoms tree compared life on the basis of how things looked. Microscopic organisms were too small to see easily, and were excluded. Whittaker’s 5 Kingdom Tree (1959) Woese’s 3 Domain Tree (1990) Plantae Fungi Animalia Bacteria Archaea Eucarya Carl Woese’s tree Protista was based on the best DNA evidence Monera of his time. Here, the microscopic Bacteria and Archaea were front and center. In fact, Woese realized that the Archaea were Níðhöggr (Nidhogg) is the dragon that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil. very special. In the 1990s, Archaea were thought to only be extremophiles living in very Methanosarcina mazeii produces the methane gas in cow farts. hot/cold, acidic/basic, or There are no known methane otherwise unusual habitats. producing Bacteria, only Archaea. Sulfolobus live in the Geysers of Yellowstone at temperatures of 40–55°C (104–131°F). Methane producers are found in humans too. Ferroplasma acidiphilum live They’re similar to those in the toxic byproducts of found in cows.
    [Show full text]
  • Eukaryotic-Like Ribosomal RNA Region in Lokiarchaeota 2 Authors: Petar I
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2019.12.25.888164; this version posted December 27, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 1 Eukaryotic-like ribosomal RNA region in Lokiarchaeota 2 Authors: Petar I. Penev1,2, Sara Fakhretaha-Aval1,3, Vaishnavi J. Patel4, Jamie J. Cannone4, 3 Robin R. Gutell4, Anton S. Petrov1,3*, Loren Dean Williams1,2,3*, Jennifer B. Glass1,2,5* 4 Affiliations: 1NASA Center for the Origin of Life, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0400, USA 2School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, North Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA 3School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, 901 Atlantic Dr, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA 5 4Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, 2415 Speedway #C0930, 6 Austin, TX 78712, USA 7 5School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Dr, 8 Atlanta, GA 30332, USA 9 *Correspondence to: [email protected]; [email protected]; 10 [email protected] 11 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2019.12.25.888164; this version posted December 27, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
    [Show full text]
  • Genomic and Evolutionary Exploration of Asgard Archaea
    Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1861 Genomic and evolutionary exploration of Asgard archaea EVA F. CACERES ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS ISSN 1651-6214 ISBN 978-91-513-0761-9 UPPSALA urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-393710 2019 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in B22, Biomedical Center (BMC), Husargatan 3, Uppsala, Thursday, 14 November 2019 at 09:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Professor Simonetta Gribaldo (Institut Pasteur, Department of Microbiology). Abstract Caceres, E. F. 2019. Genomic and evolutionary exploration of Asgard archaea. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1861. 88 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0761-9. Current evolutionary theories postulate that eukaryotes emerged from the symbiosis of an archaeal host with, at least, one bacterial symbiont. However, our limited grasp of microbial diversity hampers insights into the features of the prokaryotic ancestors of eukaryotes. This thesis focuses on the study of a group of uncultured archaea to better understand both existing archaeal diversity and the origin of eukaryotes. In a first study, we used short-read metagenomic approaches to obtain eight genomes of Lokiarchaeum relatives. Using these data we described the Asgard superphylum, comprised of at least four different phyla: Lokiarchaeota, Odinarchaeota, Thorarchaeota and Heimdallarchaoeta. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that eukaryotes affiliate with the Asgard group, albeit the exact position of eukaryotes with respect to Asgard archaea members remained inconclusive. Comparative genomics showed that Asgard archaea genomes encoded homologs of numerous eukaryotic signature proteins (ESPs), which had never been observed in Archaea before.
    [Show full text]
  • Lokiarchaea Are Close Relatives of Euryarchaeota, Not
    Lokiarchaea are close relatives of Euryarchaeota, not bridging the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes Violette da Cunha, Morgan Gaia, Danièle Gadelle, Arshan Nasir, Patrick Forterre To cite this version: Violette da Cunha, Morgan Gaia, Danièle Gadelle, Arshan Nasir, Patrick Forterre. Lokiarchaea are close relatives of Euryarchaeota, not bridging the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. PLoS Ge- netics, Public Library of Science, 2017, 13 (6), pp.e1006810. 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006810. pasteur- 01570207 HAL Id: pasteur-01570207 https://hal-pasteur.archives-ouvertes.fr/pasteur-01570207 Submitted on 28 Jul 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution| 4.0 International License RESEARCH ARTICLE Lokiarchaea are close relatives of Euryarchaeota, not bridging the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes Violette Da Cunha1,2³, Morgan Gaia1³, Daniele Gadelle2, Arshan Nasir3, Patrick Forterre1,2* 1 Institut Pasteur, Unite de Biologie MoleÂculaire du Gène chez les Extrêmophiles (BMGE), DeÂpartement de Microbiologie Paris, France, 2 Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Univ. Paris- Sud, Universite Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France, 3 Department of Biosciences, COMSATS a1111111111 Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan a1111111111 ³ These authors share first authorship on this work.
    [Show full text]
  • Lokiarchaeota Marks the Transition Between the Archaeal and Eukaryotic Selenocysteine Encoding Systems
    Lokiarchaeota Marks the Transition between the Archaeal and Eukaryotic Selenocysteine Encoding Systems The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Mariotti, Marco, Alexei V. Lobanov, Bruno Manta, Didac Santesmasses, Andreu Bofill, Roderic Guigó, Toni Gabaldón, and Vadim N. Gladyshev. 2016. “Lokiarchaeota Marks the Transition between the Archaeal and Eukaryotic Selenocysteine Encoding Systems.” Molecular Biology and Evolution 33 (9): 2441-2453. doi:10.1093/molbev/msw122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/ msw122. Published Version doi:10.1093/molbev/msw122 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:29002393 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Lokiarchaeota Marks the Transition between the Archaeal and Eukaryotic Selenocysteine Encoding Systems Marco Mariotti,1,2,3 Alexei V. Lobanov,1 Bruno Manta,1 Didac Santesmasses,2,3 Andreu Bofill,2,3 Roderic Guigo, 2,3 Toni Gabaldon, 2,3,4 and Vadim N. Gladyshev*,1 1Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 2Bioinformatics and Genomics Programme, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain 3Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF); and Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Me`diques (IMIM), Barcelona, Spain 4Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avanc¸ats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain *Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected].
    [Show full text]