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 ...

An oak tree. The symbiotic fungus intertwined with its roots. A cardinal chirping from one of its branches. Our best clue yet to their shared ancestor might have arrived in electron microscope images ...

Following the drive to understand and control bacteria, it’s becoming clear that our methods have changed the very organisms we aim to understand, increasing resistance to tried-and-true antimicrobial ...

In the late 1970s, a new branch was added to the tree of life, and archaea joined bacteria and eukarya, as domain classifications. Archaea and bacteria are both simple forms of cells called ...

The tree of life has three branches: archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes. Eukaryotes include complex organisms, including plants, animals, and fungi. Eukaryotic cells contain many organelles, little ...

Scientists are uncovering the surprising ways bacteria and archaea differ — and how these differences could be turned into weapons against dangerous infections. From bacteria’s peptidoglycan walls to ...

A genetic analysis of soil samples indicates that a group of microorganisms called crenarchaeota are the Earth’s most abundant land-based creatures that oxidize ammonia, according to an international ...

A microorganism that is a proposed relative of our cellular ancestors has been grown successfully in the laboratory. Its internal architecture offers clues to the early evolution of eukaryotic cells.

Let’s say you’ve discovered a new bacterium or archaea and want to give it a name so that it can be classified and placed on the appropriate branch of the tree of life. According to the International ...

Scientists have found further evidence to support the idea that the primary two domains of life, the Archaea and Bacteria, are separated by a long phylogenetic tree branch and therefore distantly ...