Scientists find missing link in the evolution of cells – Focus

The study contributes to understand how billions of years ago with a simple, microbial ancestors evolved complex cells, which include plants, fungi and animals, including man.

“We were able to discover a microorganism, which can be described as the missing link in the evolution of complex cells. All the books to biology begin with simple drawings and complex bacterial cell, plant or animal cells. In short, we have something between them, “- said one of the authors of publications, a researcher working microbial evolution at the University of Uppsala, Katarzyna Zaremba-Niedźwiedzka.

The cell is the basic building block building blocks of all organisms on the planet. Microbial cells are small and simple in structure, and the cells that make up the larger organisms, such as plants and animals, are much larger and more complicated. The emergence of these complex cells long been a mystery to scientists.

archaea, a new branch of the tree of life

A team of researchers from the University of Uppsala (Sweden), in cooperation with scientists from the Universities of Bergen, Norway, and specialists from Vienna now discovered a novel microorganism – ARCHEON , which is the missing link in the evolution of complex cells with simple forms.

archaea found in the 70 . known biologist Karl Woese. He showed that there is a new, hitherto completely unknown group of microorganisms that forms a separate branch of the tree of life. His discovery was a complete surprise to scientists. Archaea cells were small and simple, in what resembled bacteria, but proved to be more closely related to organisms having complex type of cell, called. eukaryotes.

Now, in an article published this week in Nature, researchers from the University of Uppsala in Sweden, together with colleagues from the Universities of Bergen and Vienna, describe the discovery of a new group of archaea, Lokiarchaeota (abbreviated “Loki”), which turn out to be the missing link in the evolution of eukaryotes.

“The mystery of origin of eukaryotic cells is extremely complicated, it still lacks many pieces of the puzzle. We had hoped that Loki will reveal some secrets, but when the first results obtained, we could not believe our eyes. Data were just spectacular “- enjoys a lead researcher Thijs Ettema from the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Biology at Uppsala University.

biology textbook for revision

“By studying the genome of Loki realized that it is an indirect form of bacterial cells between simple and complex eukaryotic cells,” – says Thijs Ettema.

When I was placed in a genome Loki the tree of relationships, interpretation proves correct. “We found that curls includes a plurality of genes that are found only in eukaryotes, suggesting that the complexity of the cell appeared early in the evolution of eukaryotic organisms” – explains the first author in, Anja Spang of uppsalskiego university. Name Lokiarchaeota comes from the inhospitable area in which was found the body at a depth of 2 352 m, near the Castle Loki (Loki’s Castle) between Greenland and Norway.

The researchers now want to find out more about how the resulting complex eukaryotic cells. “In some ways we are just beginning. There is still much to discover and I am confident that we will be forced to revise textbooks of biology in the near future” – concludes the researcher.