The discovery that Lokis has actin tentacles inside out modelsaid Spann and Schleper. In 2014, a cell biologist Baz Baum cousin evolutionary biologist at University College London David Baum Doctors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested an idea that came to mind at a family event. It was that the first eukaryotes arose after simple progenitor cells extended processes beyond the cell wall. First, this arm extended toward the symbiotic bacterium. Eventually, they closed around their partner, turning it into a proto-mitochondria. Both the original archaeal cell and the captured symbiont were encased within a skeleton provided by the arms.
Back when the Asgardian archaea were still only known from snippets of environmental DNA, Bohm asked conference attendees to sketch what they thought the creature would look like. His own drawing, based on the inside-out idea that he expected his arm to stick out, surprised the other scientists who had gathered. “It was very strange for him to make such an interesting proposal,” Schleper said at the time.
competitive atmosphere
The events of eukaryotic development have been so obscured by the intervention and gene exchange of time that we may never know them with certainty.
For example, the two Loki species currently in culture are modern organisms that differ from ancient archaea in the same way that modern singing cardinals differ from the ancestral dinosaurs from which they evolved. The Loki group is not even a subset of the Asgardian archaea, whose genetic analysis suggests that they are most closely related to eukaryotes. (Based on the known Asgardian genome, preprint Ettema et al. posted in March, claiming that the ancestor of eukaryotes was the Heimdall archaea. )
Still, laboratories around the world are betting that bringing more diverse representatives of the Asgard group into culture will yield new clues about their common ancestry with us. Mr. Schleper is trying. So is Ettema. So does Baum, who says his lab will soon have a new colleague bringing vials of archaea from groups like Heimdall and Odin. The same goes for Mr. Imachi, who refused to speak. Quanta for this story.
“If I were to be interviewed by you now, I’d probably talk about new data that hasn’t been published yet,” he explained in an email, noting that his group applauds the Schleper team’s efforts. added. “It’s very competitive now (although I don’t like this kind of competition),” he added.
Other sources also lamented the overly oppressive atmosphere. “It would be nice if this area could be shared more openly,” Spann said. The pressure hits hardest on young scientists, who tend to work on high-risk, high-return farming projects.Success adds brilliance Nature Put paper on your resume. But spending years on failed endeavors can hinder your chances of getting a job in the scientific field. “This is a really unfair situation,” Schleper said.
But for now, the race continues. When Bohm’s cousins published their thoughts on eukaryogenesis in 2014, Baz Bohm said he thought they probably would never know the truth. Then suddenly the Asgardians appeared, giving us another glimpse of the transitional period of limits that pushed life from unicellular simplicity to rampage.
“Before we destroy this beautiful planet, we should do a little research, because there are wonderful things on Earth that we know nothing about. Perhaps something like a living fossil, something in between.” ,” he says. “Maybe it’s on the shower curtain.”
original story Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, editorially independent publication Simmons Foundation Its mission is to enhance public understanding of science by addressing research developments and trends in mathematics, physical sciences and life sciences.
