Archaeal dark matter and the origin of eukaryotes

这个项目的目的是调查真核生物以及古生代内所有多细胞生命的高度争议的起源，古生代是单细胞微生物的领域。长期以来，由于无法从环境中培养古菌，解决真核起源问题一直受到阻碍。该项目旨在开发一种新的高通量单细胞基因组学方法来恢复古生菌基因组，从而绕过培养步骤。基因组将有助于建立一个全面的分类框架，这将有助于评估真核生物和古生物领域之间的进化关系。这可能会发现具有新陈代谢能力的以前未知的古生菌。

This project aims to investigate the highly controversial origin of eukaryotes and thus all multicellular life within Archaea, a domain of single-celled microorganisms. Resolving eukaryotic origins has long been hampered by an inability to cultivate archaea from the environment. This project aims to develop a novel high-throughput single-cell genomics approach to recover archaeal genomes, thus bypassing the cultivation step. The genomes will contribute to a comprehensive taxonomic framework which will facilitate the evaluation of evolutionary relationships between the eukaryotic and archaeal domains. This may uncover previously unknown archaea with novel metabolic capabilities.