title: Lokiarchaeota: eukaryote-like missing links from microbial dark matter?
abstract: Identification and genome sequencing of novel organismal groups can reduce the gap between the sequenced minority and the unexplored majority. The recent discovery of phylum Lokiarchaeota promises understanding of biological history. Here we inquire if Lokiarchaeota truly represent ancient eukaryotic ancestors or just microbial dark matter of expanding archaeal diversity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Arshan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nasir
authors.affiliation: Microbial Resource Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon, South Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Mo
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Bioinformatics Laboratory, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Electronic address: gca@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Caetano-Anollés
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020745:Genome, Archaeal
keywords: archaea; biodiversity; metagenomics; origin of eukaryotes; phylogenetics