Welcome to ArchaeaCast! In our third episode, our hosts Priyanka Chatterjee and Connor Hines talk about Asgardarcheota, Norse mythology named Archaea! In the second part of the episode, Dr. Alex Phillips interviews Prof. Brett Baker, from the University of Texas at Austin.

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For nomenclature changes, current nomenclature can be found here

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Sources

Scientists Break Record By Finding Northernmost Hydrothermal Vent Field

Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes

Cultured Asgard Archaea Shed Light on Eukaryogenesis

Genomic reconstruction of a novel, deeply branched sediment archaeal phylum with pathways for acetogenesis and sulfur reduction

Asgard archaea illuminate the origin of eukaryotic cellular complexity

Isolation of an archaeon at the prokaryote–eukaryote interface

Casting light on Asgardarchaeota metabolism in a sunlit microoxic niche

Fantastic article on the history of Metagenomics

Press release which includes the E3 image from JAMSTEC, and a great video on E3 from JAMSTEC.

Other work cited:

Booth A, Doolittle WF. Eukaryogenesis, how special really? Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Aug 18;112(33):10278-85. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1421376112. Epub 2015 Apr 16. PMID: 25883267; PMCID: PMC4547297.

Jørgensen, Steffen Leth, et al. "Quantitative and phylogenetic study of the Deep Sea Archaeal Group in sediments of the Arctic mid-ocean spreading ridge." Frontiers in microbiology (2013)

Stackebrandt E, Frederiksen W, Garrity GM, Grimont PAD, Kämpfer P, Maiden MCJ, Nesme X, Rosselló-Mora R, Swings J, Trüper HG, Vauterin L, Ward AC, Whitman WB. Report of the ad hoc committee for the re-evaluation of the species definition in bacteriology. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 2002 May;52(Pt 3):1043-1047. doi: 10.1099/00207713-52-3-1043. PMID: 12054223.

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ArchaeaCast episodes drop every other Tuesday on your favorite audio platform!

We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at archaeacast@gmail.com

Welcome to ArchaeaCast! In our second episode, our hosts Priyanka Chatterjee and Connor Hines talk about Halophiles, the salt-loving Archaea! In the second part of the episode, Dr. Alex Phillips interviews Prof. Amy Schimd, from Duke University.

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Some species and genera names have changed since this episode was recorded. Current nomenclature can be found here.

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Bibliography:

Cited in the episode:

Pietrangelo, A. "Pink Himalayan Salt: Benefits, Risks, and Alternatives." Healthline, 2 Sept. 2023

Papp, ZJ. "Morphological and Microchemical Characterization of Himalayan Salt Samples." Revue Roumaine de Chimie, vol. 61, no. 3, Mar. 2016

Duarte CM et al D. Discovery of Afifi, the shallowest and southernmost brine pool reported in the Red Sea. Sci Rep. 2020

Wilkanski, B. Life in the Dead Sea. Nature 138, 467 (1936).

Yim, K.,et al et al. Occurrence of viable, red-pigmented haloarchaea in the plumage of captive flamingoes. Sci Rep 5, 16425 (2015).

Giani M et al Haloarchaeal Carotenoids: Healthy Novel Compounds from Extreme Environments. Mar Drugs. 2019 Sep 6;17(9):524.

Aharon Oren, John E. Hallsworth, Microbial weeds in hypersaline habitats: the enigma of the weed-like Haloferax mediterranei, FEMS Microbiology Letters, 2014.

DasSarma S, et al Extremophilic models for astrobiology: haloarchaeal survival strategies and pigments for remote sensing. Extremophiles. 2020 Jan;24(1):31-41. doi: 10.1007/s00792-019-01126-3.

Cited in the interview:

Biotechnological applications of haloarchaea: Mitra, R., Xu, T., Xiang, H. et al. Current developments on polyhydroxyalkanoates synthesis by using halophiles as a promising cell factory. Microb Cell Fact 19, 86 (2020).

Haloarchaea can survive months of desiccation: Kottemann M, Kish A, Iloanusi C, Bjork S, DiRuggiero J. Physiological responses of the halophilic archaeon Halobacterium sp. strain NRC1 to desiccation and gamma irradiation. Extremophiles. 2005 Jun;9(3):219-27. doi: 10.1007/s00792-005-0437-4. Epub 2005 Apr 21. PMID: 15844015.

Halite deposits on Mars:M. M. Osterloo et al. Chloride-Bearing Materials in the Southern Highlands of Mars.Science 319,1651-1654(2008), among others

Haloarchaea can survive for millennia in salt inclusions: Fendrihan S, Dornmayr-Pfaffenhuemer M, Gerbl FW, Holzinger A, Grösbacher M, Briza P, Erler A, Gruber C, Plätzer K, Stan-Lotter H. Spherical particles of halophilic archaea correlate with exposure to low water activity--implications for microbial survival in fluid inclusions of ancient halite. Geobiology. 2012 Sep;10(5):424-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-4669.2012.00337.x. Epub 2012 Jul 15. PMID: 22804926; PMCID: PMC3495301, among others

Halo handbook (protocols) by Mike Dyall-Smith

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Cool videos and pictures:

Hot tub of despair, Pink Lakes

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ArchaeaCast episodes drop every other Tuesday on your favorite audio platform!

We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at archaeacast@gmail.com

Welcome to ArchaeaCast! In our first episode, our hosts Priyanka Chatterjee and Connor Hines talk about the history of Archaea, how we discovered that they were different from bacteria, and discuss their unique classification.

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For nomenclature changes, current nomenclature can be found at: https://gtdb.ecogenomic.org/genome?gid=GCA_003086455.1

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Bibliography:

Singer, Charles J. (1931). A short history of biology, a general introduction to the study of living things. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Woese, Carl R., Otto Kandler, and Mark L. Wheelis. "Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 87.12 (1990): 4576-4579.

Cavalier-Smith, Thomas. "A revised six-kingdom system of life." Biological Reviews 73.3 (1998): 203-266.

Cavalier-Smith, Thomas. "Only six kingdoms of life." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 271.1545 (2004): 1251-1262.

Ruggiero, Michael A., et al. "A higher level classification of all living organisms." PloS one 10.4 (2015): e0119248.

Koonin, Eugene V. "Origin of eukaryotes from within archaea, archaeal eukaryome and bursts of gene gain: eukaryogenesis just made easier?." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370, no. 1678 (2015): 20140333.

Noller, H. Carl Woese (1928–2012). Nature 493, 610 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/493610a

Pauling, L., & Zuckerkandl, E. (1963). Chemical paleogenetics. Acta Chem. Scand, 17, S9–S16.

Woese, C. R., & Fox, G. E. (1977). Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 74(11), 5088–5090.\

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ArchaeaCast episodes drop every other Tuesday on your favorite audio platform!

We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at archaeacast@gmail.com