Odinarchaeota

This student page has not been curated.

Image of Asgard archaea in the ocean. Image credit: Thiago Rodrigues-Oliveira, University of Vienna.

Classification

Archaea; Proteoarchaeota; Asgard; Odinarchaeota; Odinarchaeia; Odinarchaeales; Odinarchaeaceae

Species

NCBI: [1]

Candidatus Odinarchaeota

Description and Significance

There is not much known about Odinarchaeota and what it looks like. However, it is a complex microbe like that of other Asgard archaea members. Many members of this family have complex and long protrusions. Odinarchaeaota are typically found at deep depths within the ocean, or in hot spring where temperatures are very high. However, Odinarchaeota can be found in places like freshwater, and on bodies of animals. Odinarchaeota is a part of Asgard archaea. Asgard archaea are important because signature eukaryotic proteins are derived from them. Even chloroplasts in plant cells are encoded from Asgard archaea.

Genome Structure

The genome size of Odinarchaeota is 1.4 Mb. Odinarchaeota only has 1 chromosome, and it is circular. There is very little research done about Asgard archaea, and even less research done on Odinarchaeota. Studies have found that some important eukaryotic proteins are encoded by Asgard archaea, for example some very important membrane rebuilding proteins are encoded by these microbes.

Cell Structure, Metabolism and Life Cycle

Odinarchaeota are anaerobic meaning this organism can only live in the absence of oxygen.

Interesting features of cell structure; how it gains energy; what important molecules it produces.

Ecology and Pathogenesis

Odinarchaeota are found all over the world, in different geographical regions and habitats. Odinarchaeota is typically found in sediments with high salinity and at great depths. But some Odinarchaeota can be found on the body of some animals, in freshwater, on the sea surface, and even in certain plants. Odinarchaeota is very significant because researchers believe a merger of Asgard archaea, and an aerobic bacterium created the eukaryotes with aerobic mitochondria. It is also believed that a second merger is what created the chloroplasts in plant cells. Using metagenomics researchers have found that several viruses are associated with Asgard archaea. Viruses associated with Asgard archaea were assigned to specific hosts using CRISPR sequencing, this is how Odinarchaeia was discovered.  

If relevant, how does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms.

References

Biology:Asgard (archaea) - HandWiki. (2023, June 28). Handwiki.org. https://handwiki.org/wiki/Biology:Asgard_(archaea)

L. Eme et al. Inference and reconstruction of the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes. Nature, published online June 14, 2023; doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06186-2

Schoch CL, et al. NCBI Taxonomy: a comprehensive update on curation, resources and tools. Database (Oxford). 2020: baaa062. PubMed: 32761142 PMC: PMC7408187.

Sofia Medvedeva, Jiarui Sun, Natalya Yutin, Eugene V. Koonin, Takuro Nunoura, et al.. Three families of Asgard archaeal viruses identified in metagenome-assembled genomes. Nature Microbiology, 2022, 7 (7), pp.962-973. ⟨10.1038/s41564-022-01144-6⟩. ⟨pasteur-03711350⟩

Author

Page authored by Lilly Branch, student of Prof. Bradley Tolar at UNC Wilmington.