GoKawiilResearchers culture Asgard archaea, offering insight into origins of complex life
Scientists successfully grew Asgard archaea in laboratory conditions, a group of microorganisms long considered the closest living relatives of eukaryotes. The cultivation allowed direct study of their cell biology and structures, which had previously only been inferred from genetic data.
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Because Asgard archaea are notoriously slow-growing and hard to isolate, successful cultivation gives researchers a rare physical specimen to examine rather than relying solely on genomic reconstructions. This could help clarify how the first complex eukaryotic cells evolved from simpler microbial ancestors, according to researchers studying the samples.
- Asgard archaea are considered close relatives of eukaryotic life forms
- Lab cultivation enables direct observation of cell structures previously only inferred from DNA
- Findings could inform theories on the evolutionary origin of complex cells
Source: nature.com, 2026-10-28
Published there as: “Clues about complex life come from freshly cultivated archaea”
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