Archaea and the tree of life
In 1977, Woese and Fox proposed the Archaea as a new domain of life and that the tree of life is divided into three branches — the Eukarya, Bacteria and Archaea. Although a three-domain tree was controversial to some, this study was soon accepted, and is widely regarded as one of the most important discoveries in biology of the past century. To mark 40 years of archaea research, this collection of articles from across the Nature group of journals explores the fundamental biology, evolution, metabolic versatility and ecological impact of archaea, and how the discovery of new species is reshaping the tree of life.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Archaea, Nature Microbiology interviewed prominent archaeal scientists to ask them about how they got involved in archaeal research, discuss the biggest advances in the field during the past four decades, and highlight where the field is headed:
George Fox (University of Houston, US)
Sonja-Verena Albers (University of Freiburg, Germany)
Thijs Ettema (Uppsala University, Sweden)
Patrick Forterre (Institut Pasteur, France)
Roger Garrett (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Simonetta Gribaldo (Institut Pasteur, France)
Dina Grohmann (Universitat Regensburg, Germany)
Anna-Louise Reysenbach (Portland State University, United States)
Filipa Sousa (University of Vienna, Austria)
Karl Stetter (Universitat Regensburg, Germany)
Tanja Woyke (Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, United States)
