Ancient Asgard archaea may have used oxygen long before Earth’s oxygenation reshaped life
TL;DR
A Nature study analyzing deep-sea sediments found Heimdallarchaeia genomes with components of aerobic respiration, suggesting Asgard archaea could tolerate and potentially use oxygen long before Earth’s oxygenation, providing metabolic groundwork for the archaeal–eukaryotic merger that gave rise to complex life.
Topics:scienceplanet-earth#asgard-archaea#eukaryotes#heimdallarchaeia#origin-of-life#oxygen-metabolism#planet-earth
- Ancient 'Asgard' microbe may have used oxygen long before it was plentiful on Earth, offering new clue to origins of complex life Live Science
- Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor Nature
- How Microbes Got Their Crawl The New York Times
- A Major Conundrum In The Origin Of Complex Life Has Just Been Solved IFLScience
- Deep-Sea Microbes Reveal How Complex Life Began SciTechDaily
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