University of Texas Study Reveals Asgard Archaea's Oxygen Adaptation

University of Texas at Austin researchers found Asgard archaea use or tolerate oxygen.
Oxygen-using alphaproteobacterium symbioses with anaerobic Asgard archaea despite low oxygen in Earth's atmosphere.
Researchers analyzed 13,000 microbial genomes and 15 terabytes of DNA using AlphaFold2.
Results support a model linking oxygen to eukaryogenesis, aligning with geological evidence.
Genomes from a 2025 Uruguay cruise and 2019 DNA work provided data.
Brett Baker noted most Asgard archaea found in oxygen-free environments.

Science | Evolution | Biology

United States | Uruguay

Brett Baker

6 days ago