Topic
A domain of single-celled prokaryotic organisms distinct from bacteria, many of which live in extreme or oxygen-free environments.
Weizmann and Regensburg researchers report in Cell that heat-loving archaea carry natural RNA phosphorothioates, the backbone chemistry used in RNA drugs. Developers get a natural counterpart to study, and the paper's title also points to the enzymes that install the marks.
Reality
Researchers report in Current Biology that the archaeon Sukunaarchaeum mirabile has a 238-kilobase-pair genome, the smallest ever seen in its domain. The sequence shows nearly no metabolism but intact copying machinery, so its status as a cell rests on inference.
Reality
Sukunaarchaeum, a marine archaeon with 189 protein-coding genes, carries genes for copying its DNA and making proteins but almost none for food or energy. That puts it nearer an independent cell than an organelle, though so far the only evidence is its genome.
Reality
Six PII complexes hold three units of a methanogen's nitrogenase inactive in the first archaeal nitrogenase structure, solved by cryo-EM. ATP and 2-oxoglutarate free the enzyme and triple its activity in vitro, a switch living cells have yet to confirm.
Reality
University of Vienna researchers filmed two Asgard archaea strains crawling on protrusions, a motion previously known only in eukaryotic cells. The team argues that such motility may predate complex cells, a timing claim that so far rests on two lab strains.
Reality