Hyperthermophilic Archaea as model systems to study origin and evolution of early organisms

Details Hyperthermophilic Archaea as model systems to study origin and evolution of early organisms Hyperthermophilic Archaea as model systems to study origin and evolution of early organisms

Nov 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002esasp.518..137c&link_type=abstract

In: Proceedings of the First European Workshop on Exo-Astrobiology, 16 - 19 September 2002, Graz, Austria. Ed.: Huguette Lacoste

Biology

1

Organic Matter: Origin

Scientific paper

The current preponderance of geological and geochemical evidence favours a warm to hot Earth during the first few hundred million years after accretion. Nowadays, volcanic areas, essentially unchanged for at least 4.3 Ga, are populated by hyperthermophilic microorganisms, the majority belonging to the domain Archaea. Most Archaea live in almost any environmental niches previously thought of as insurmountable physical and chemical barriers to life. These findings expanded what we considered the limits of life stimulating the exobiological research area and increasing the likelihood that life could have evolved in planets considered totally inhospitable. The study of the biology of Archaea can provide useful answers to questions concerning the chemical-physical conditions that are compatible with the mechanisms of abiogenesis and the evolution of early life. In this framework, our group is involved since a long time in the study of hyperthermophilic Archaea. We faced some crucial questions dealing with the biology of these organisms like: was the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) a (hyper)thermophile? How are Archaea phylogenetically related to the other domains of living organisms regarding DNA replication, transcription and gene organization? How can withstand DNA and proteins of hyperthermophiles to high temperatures? We here report on recent advances we obtained on these aspects.

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