Asgard archaea: have we found our microbial ancestors?

Abstract

The discovery of Asgard archaea about a decade ago has greatly reshaped our understanding of archaeal evolution and the origin of eukaryotes. Asgards are currently thought to be the closest prokaryotic relatives of eukaryotes and to represent the archaeal host lineage that participated in the endosymbiotic event leading to the first eukaryotic cell. The presence of numerous eukaryotic signature proteins in Asgard genomes supports this view and provides important insights into the deep evolutionary roots of eukaryotic cellular complexity. However, the close relationship between archaea and eukaryotes had been observed for decades, based on features that are shared in different molecular processes. This review discusses the discovery of Asgard archaea in the broader context of archaeal molecular and cellular biology and highlights how earlier findings foreshadowed their emergence. Primarily targeted at newcomers to the field, the review provides an overview of evolutionary innovations across the Archaea domain and discusses molecular and cellular features of cultivated Asgard strains in light of previous archaeal research.