Extreme environments offer an unprecedented opportunity to understand microbial eukaryotic ecology, evolution, and genome biology

Research in extreme environments has substantially expanded our understanding of the ecology and evolution of life on Earth, but a major group of organisms has been largely overlooked: microbial eukaryotes (i.e., protists). In this Perspective, we summarize data from over 80 studies of protists in e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2023-08, Vol.14 (1), p.4959-4959, Article 4959
Main Authors: Rappaport, Hannah B., Oliverio, Angela M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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631/326/2565
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Algae
Biological evolution
Biology
Cryosphere
Ecology
Enzymes
Eukaryotes
Evolution
Extreme environments
Fungi
Genomes
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lakes
Microorganisms
Morphology
multidisciplinary
Perspective
Salinity
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Temperature
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Summary:Research in extreme environments has substantially expanded our understanding of the ecology and evolution of life on Earth, but a major group of organisms has been largely overlooked: microbial eukaryotes (i.e., protists). In this Perspective, we summarize data from over 80 studies of protists in extreme environments and identify focal lineages that are of significant interest for further study, including clades within Echinamoebida, Heterolobosea, Radiolaria, Haptophyta, Oomycota, and Cryptophyta. We argue that extreme environments are prime sampling targets to fill gaps in the eukaryotic tree of life and to increase our understanding of the ecology, metabolism, genome architecture, and evolution of eukaryotic life. The ecology and evolution of eukaryotic microbes in extreme environments are poorly understood. In this Perspective, Rappaport and Oliverio summarize data from over 80 studies of protists in extreme environments and identify lineages of particular interest as targets for future research.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-40657-4