Undinarchaeota illuminate DPANN phylogeny and the impact of gene transfer on archaeal evolution

Nina Dombrowski, Tom A. Williams, Jiarui Sun, Benjamin J. Woodcroft, Jun-Hoe Lee, Bui Quang Minh, Christian Rinke and Anja Spang ()
Additional contact information
Nina Dombrowski: NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University
Tom A. Williams: University of Bristol
Jiarui Sun: Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland
Benjamin J. Woodcroft: Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland
Jun-Hoe Lee: Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University
Bui Quang Minh: Australian National University
Christian Rinke: Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland
Anja Spang: NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract The recently discovered DPANN archaea are a potentially deep-branching, monophyletic radiation of organisms with small cells and genomes. However, the monophyly and early emergence of the various DPANN clades and their role in life’s evolution are debated. Here, we reconstructed and analysed genomes of an uncharacterized archaeal phylum (Candidatus Undinarchaeota), revealing that its members have small genomes and, while potentially being able to conserve energy through fermentation, likely depend on partner organisms for the acquisition of certain metabolites. Our phylogenomic analyses robustly place Undinarchaeota as an independent lineage between two highly supported ‘DPANN’ clans. Further, our analyses suggest that DPANN have exchanged core genes with their hosts, adding to the difficulty of placing DPANN in the tree of life. This pattern can be sufficiently dominant to allow identifying known symbiont-host clades based on routes of gene transfer. Together, our work provides insights into the origins and evolution of DPANN and their hosts.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17408-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-17408-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17408-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().