Diverse Asgard archaea including the novel phylum Gerdarchaeota participate in organic matter degradation

Mingwei Cai; Yang Liu; Xiuran Yin; Zhichao Zhou; Michael W. Friedrich; Tim Richter-Heitmann; Rolf Nimzyk; Ajinkya Kulkarni; Xiaowen Wang; Wenjin Li; Jie Pan; Yuchun Yang; Ji Dong Gu; Meng Li

doi:10.1007/s11427-020-1679-1

Diverse Asgard archaea including the novel phylum Gerdarchaeota participate in organic matter degradation

Mingwei Cai, Yang Liu, Xiuran Yin, Zhichao Zhou, Michael W. Friedrich, Tim Richter-Heitmann, Rolf Nimzyk, Ajinkya Kulkarni, Xiaowen Wang, Wenjin Li, Jie Pan, Yuchun Yang, Ji Dong Gu, Meng Li^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

Asgard is an archaeal superphylum that might hold the key to understand the origin of eukaryotes, but its diversity and ecological roles remain poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed 15 metagenomic-assembled genomes from coastal sediments covering most known Asgard archaea and a novel group, which is proposed as a new Asgard phylum named as the “Gerdarchaeota”. Genomic analyses predict that Gerdarchaeota are facultative anaerobes in utilizing both organic and inorganic carbon. Unlike their closest relatives Heimdallarchaeota, Gerdarchaeota have genes encoding for cellulase and enzymes involved in the tetrahydromethanopterin-based Wood—Ljungdahl pathway. Transcriptomics showed that most of our identified Asgard archaea are capable of degrading organic matter, including peptides, amino acids and fatty acids, occupying ecological niches in different depths of layers of the sediments. Overall, this study broadens the diversity of the mysterious Asgard archaea and provides evidence for their ecological roles in coastal sediments.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	886-897
Number of pages	12
Journal	Science China Life Sciences
Volume	63
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1679-1
State	Published - 1 Jun 2020
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Asgard archaea
Gerdarchaeota
coastal sediment
metagenome
metatranscriptome

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10.1007/s11427-020-1679-1

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title = "Diverse Asgard archaea including the novel phylum Gerdarchaeota participate in organic matter degradation",

abstract = "Asgard is an archaeal superphylum that might hold the key to understand the origin of eukaryotes, but its diversity and ecological roles remain poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed 15 metagenomic-assembled genomes from coastal sediments covering most known Asgard archaea and a novel group, which is proposed as a new Asgard phylum named as the “Gerdarchaeota”. Genomic analyses predict that Gerdarchaeota are facultative anaerobes in utilizing both organic and inorganic carbon. Unlike their closest relatives Heimdallarchaeota, Gerdarchaeota have genes encoding for cellulase and enzymes involved in the tetrahydromethanopterin-based Wood—Ljungdahl pathway. Transcriptomics showed that most of our identified Asgard archaea are capable of degrading organic matter, including peptides, amino acids and fatty acids, occupying ecological niches in different depths of layers of the sediments. Overall, this study broadens the diversity of the mysterious Asgard archaea and provides evidence for their ecological roles in coastal sediments.",

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AU - Liu, Yang

AU - Yin, Xiuran

AU - Zhou, Zhichao

AU - Friedrich, Michael W.

AU - Richter-Heitmann, Tim

AU - Nimzyk, Rolf

AU - Kulkarni, Ajinkya

AU - Wang, Xiaowen

AU - Li, Wenjin

AU - Pan, Jie

AU - Yang, Yuchun

AU - Gu, Ji Dong

AU - Li, Meng

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AB - Asgard is an archaeal superphylum that might hold the key to understand the origin of eukaryotes, but its diversity and ecological roles remain poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed 15 metagenomic-assembled genomes from coastal sediments covering most known Asgard archaea and a novel group, which is proposed as a new Asgard phylum named as the “Gerdarchaeota”. Genomic analyses predict that Gerdarchaeota are facultative anaerobes in utilizing both organic and inorganic carbon. Unlike their closest relatives Heimdallarchaeota, Gerdarchaeota have genes encoding for cellulase and enzymes involved in the tetrahydromethanopterin-based Wood—Ljungdahl pathway. Transcriptomics showed that most of our identified Asgard archaea are capable of degrading organic matter, including peptides, amino acids and fatty acids, occupying ecological niches in different depths of layers of the sediments. Overall, this study broadens the diversity of the mysterious Asgard archaea and provides evidence for their ecological roles in coastal sediments.

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Diverse Asgard archaea including the novel phylum Gerdarchaeota participate in organic matter degradation

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Keywords

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