Researchers culture rare Asgard archaea, rewriting the origin of complex life
Scientists are isolating and studying organisms that appear to be the ancestral ancestors of all eukaryotes, shifting understanding of life's domains.
What to know
- Asgard archaea, discovered in 2015, appear to be the ancestral lineage of all eukaryotic life, overturning the traditional three-domain model of life.
- Scientists have successfully cultured at least six species of Asgard archaea since 2020, with several more in development—a major breakthrough given the organisms' extreme rarity and slow growth.
- Direct laboratory study of living Asgard cells is revealing physical features and behaviors that explain the evolutionary transition from simple to complex life.
Emily Aguilar-Pine Researcher, University of Texas at AustinPaul Carini Microbiologist, University of ArizonaStavros Trimmer PhD student, Montana State University
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Nature publishes feature on Asgard archaea breakthrough
Nature News reports on the emerging field of Asgard archaeon culturing and what direct study of these organisms reveals about the origins of complex life, describing researchers as racing to culture more species.
“Asgard are by far the coolest thing to happen to microbiology in the last 30 to 40 years.”
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"Over two days in June, Emily Aguilar-Pine drove 2,500 kilometres from Bozeman, Montana, to Austin, Texas, with one of microbiology’s most coveted organisms in the back of her mother’s SUV. Inside some protective packaging, labelled ‘hopes and dreams’, was a small bottle containing about 30 millilitres of what looked like clear liquid, but that in…
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I'd not disagree: "Asgard are by far the coolest thing to happen to microbiology in the last 30 to 40 years,” says microbiologist Paul Carini at the University of Arizona in Tucson, whose laboratory is working with an unpublished culture that originated in an estuarine environment in Oregon. Scientists are now studying the surprising shapes…
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Researcher transports Asgard culture across North America — Emily Aguilar-Pine drove 2,500 kilometers from Montana to Texas carrying a culture of Skadiarchaeum cthulhuensis, one of several unpublished Asgard cultures under active study.
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Four additional Asgard archaea cultures announced — Four more Asgard archaeon species were announced since the start of 2025, bringing the total of published cultures to at least six, with several more in development.
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Second Asgard archaeon culture announced — A second species of Asgard archaeon was successfully cultured, extending the growing collection of live isolates.
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First Asgard archaeon cultures successfully established — Scientists reported the first stable cultures of Asgard archaea, marking the beginning of direct laboratory observation of these organisms.
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Asgard archaea identified in Atlantic Ocean sediments — Researchers discovered Asgard archaea through DNA analysis of sediments from the North Atlantic, fundamentally changing scientific understanding of eukaryotic origins.
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first by Nature, 7d ago · also Nature News