Brett Baker

Scientists are one step closer to understanding the origins of complex life on Earth after shedding new light on a mystery about our microbial ancestors. https://cnn.it/4srOEWd

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling - Nature Microbiology A structural catalogue of the Asgard archaeal pangenome reveals hundreds of eukaryotic-like proteins that suggest a higher degree of cellular complexity in the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling - Nature Microbiology A structural catalogue of the Asgard archaeal pangenome reveals hundreds of eukaryotic-like proteins that suggest a higher degree of cellular complexity in the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes.

Fun new paper out today - a collaboration led by @stephkoe.bsky.social and @ettema.bsky.social found lots of new Euk-like proteins in Asgard Archaea
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Anyone have any new Asgards to read? If not, we have a new one coming on Monday haha.

Nice review! Actually next year will be the tenth anniversary of Asgards. Last year was the 10th of Loki.

Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling - Nature Microbiology A structural catalogue of the Asgard archaeal pangenome reveals hundreds of eukaryotic-like proteins that suggest a higher degree of cellular complexity in the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes.

🧵 1/10 New paper out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com from my postdoc at @mib-wur.bsky.social! 🎉

How eukaryote-like was the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes? Sequence searches alone can't tell us — so we used protein structure prediction to look deeper. 🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Finally out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com: Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling. Great work by @stephkoe.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social @jvhooff.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Mysterious Asgard microbes may point to origins of complex life | CNN Scientists are trying to understand how complex life emerged on Earth about 2 billion years ago. Our microbial ancestors could be the key.

www.cnn.com/2026/03/04/s...

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

#NatMicroPicks

Aerobic archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor? 🦠🫁

The ancestor of eukaryotes may have combined hydrogen metabolism with aerobic respiration, shaping early cellular complexity.

#MicroSky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgardarchaeota, in conditions that may have given rise to early eukaryotes.

Nature research paper: Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor

go.nature.com/4rSfRRw

By combining the ecological and evolutionary analyses, we present a Heimdallarchaeia-centric model for the origin of eukaryotes, based on our expanded genomic catalogue. #eukaryogenesis
9/12

Cytochrome c oxidase subunits in
Heimdallarchaeia show sequence homology and structural similarity to eukaryotic Complex IV.
Thus, providing a new perspective of the increasing complexity of the electron transport chain in these archaea.
8/12

Sequence and structural analysis of [NiFel-hydrogenases and flanking Complex I-like subunits identified 19 novel subgroups (doubling groups 3 and 4). Extensive structural analyses across Asgardarchaeota may further bridge the evolution of group 4 [NiFel-hydrogenases and Complex I.
7/12

Our findings show the current closest archaeal order to eukaryotes, Hodarchaeales, has been identified primarily in shallow coastal sediments and encode cytochrome c oxidase, heme biosynthesis, & responses to reactive oxygen species. Hodarchaeales also co-occur with Alphaproteobacteria.
6/12

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor Nature - Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from...

Open access to article rdcu.be/e4A70

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor Nature - Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from...

Open access to article rdcu.be/e4A70

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor Nature - Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from...

Open access to article rdcu.be/e4A70

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

At long last! Check out the link to our publication in @nature.com to learn more. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
12/12

Very excited to share our work published today in Nature: ‘Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor’. This was a huge effort led by the amazing Kathryn Appler from Brett…... Very excited to share our work published today in Nature: ‘Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor’. This was a huge effort led by the amazing Kathryn Appler from Brett ...

Cross-post on LinkedIn, since everyone is on LinkedIn these days:
www.linkedin.com/posts/jamesl...

Overview of the modular architecture of complex I–like respiratory complexes, from the fantastic review by Yu et al. (2021) JBC: https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(21)00529-9/fulltext

We found [NiFe]-hydrogenase complexes with structural architectures very similar to that of respiratory complex I. It's been known for a long time that [NiFe]-hydrogenase and complex I are evolutionarily related, but prior work showed that the configuration of their subunits differed (e.g., MBH)

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Obtaining these MAGs involved >10 TB of new sequencing to build the largest known deep-sea genomic database. We also incorporated previous sequencing from the Guaymas Basin and Bohai Sea.
This effort to identify Asgard archaea included 44 samples, >13,839 MAGs, and 34.5 billion reads (15 TB).
5/12

Here, we nearly double the number of Asgardarchaeota MAGs, including 136
Heimdallarchaeia (49 Hodarchaeales), along with several novel lineages. We also introduce a new class, Ranarchaeia.
4/12

Our massive genomic expansion of Asgard archaea reveals oxygen tolerance and potential aerobic respiration in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor!
#Asgardarchaeota 2/12

I will add if there's any wonder how much work this study was just have a look at the 170 pages SI file! static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10...

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

Hot eukaryogenesis news (is there any other kind?) - hydrogen production and aerobic respiration may have been present in the Asgard-eukaryotic ancestor - paper in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

New research in @nature.com funded by our Life Sciences division: "Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10128-z

YouTube video by Schmidt Ocean The Origins of Complex Life | Searching for the Asgards

For more background - a nice short movie youtu.be/Jy_boPdY0zo?...