Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, SE-75123 Uppsala, Sweden.
Science. 2017 Aug 11;357(6351). doi: 10.1126/science.aaf3883.
About 40 years ago, Archaea were recognized as a major prokaryotic domain of life besides Bacteria. Recently, cultivation-independent sequencing methods have produced a wealth of genomic data for previously unidentified archaeal lineages, several of which appear to represent newly revealed branches in the tree of life. Analyses of some recently obtained genomes have uncovered previously unknown metabolic traits and provided insights into the evolution of archaea and their relationship to eukaryotes. On the basis of our current understanding, much archaeal diversity still defies genomic exploration. Efforts to obtain and study genomes and enrichment cultures of uncultivated microbial lineages will likely further expand our knowledge about archaeal phylogenetic and metabolic diversity and their cell biology and ecological function.
大约 40 年前，古菌被认为是除细菌之外的生命的主要原核领域。最近，无需培养的测序方法产生了大量以前无法识别的古菌谱系的基因组数据，其中有几个似乎代表了生命之树中新发现的分支。对一些最近获得的基因组的分析揭示了以前未知的代谢特征，并深入了解了古菌的进化及其与真核生物的关系。根据我们目前的理解，仍有许多古菌多样性难以用基因组来探索。获取和研究未培养微生物谱系的基因组和富集培养物的努力，可能会进一步扩大我们对古菌系统发育和代谢多样性及其细胞生物学和生态功能的认识。
