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Non-bacteria prokaryotes
Non-bacteria prokaryotes
Archaea are microscopic, single-celled, prokaryotic organisms. They were originally called archaebacteria, but are distantly-related to bacteria, and possess genes more closely related to those of eukaryotes. Archaea do not use sunlight to fix carbon, and use more energy sources than other autotrophs. They are a major component of ocean plankton
Features
Features
The Asgard archaea (Asgardarchaeota), and specifically the order Hodarchaeales, is most closely related to eukaryotes (Eme et al., 2023)
Archaea use more energy sources than eukaryotes
Organic compounds, such as sugars
Ammonia
Metal ions
Hydrogen gas
Unlike plants/algae and cyanobacteria, archaea do not use sunlight to "fix carbon"
Archaea do not produce spores like many bacteria and eukaryotes
Many are soil-dwelling in extreme environments (extremophiles), but not all
Geologic Age
Geologic Age
Archean - present
Above: Thermophilic archaea in the Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park
Questions for thought:
Questions for thought:
What are Archaea?
How are they different from the other domains?
Where could I find Archaea?
What important role do they play in the environment?
Additional Reading:
Additional Reading:
From the volcanic crater to the lab: Extremophiles offer a lesson in survival (Phys.org 29Nov2025)
└Pan-modification profiling facilitates a cross-evolutionary dissection of the thermoregulated ribosomal epitranscriptome (Garcia-Campos et al., 2025)
Uncovering a new genetic code in archaea opens doors for bioengineering applications (Phys.org 26Nov2025)
└An archaeal genetic code with all TAG codons as pyrrolysine (Kivenson et al., 2025)
Genomes uncover the extraordinary drive to survive in microbes beneath Antarctic ice (Phys.org 10Sep2025)
└Kim et al. (2025) Genetic isolation and metabolic complexity of an Antarctic subglacial microbiome
Eukaryotes may all derive from an Asgard ancestor (Futurity 23Jun2023; peer-reviewed Eme et al. 2023)
3.42-billion-year-old fossil threads may be the oldest known archaea microbes (Science News 26Jul2021; peer-reviewed Science Advances )
Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes (Nature 6May2015)
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