ArticleNature microbiology2016
The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 418 papers.
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Who cites it
418 citing papers in PubMed, 1,038 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Phylogenetic reconciliation supports a methanogenic ancestor of the Archaea and a derived origin for host-associated lineages.Nature communications · 2026Article
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- Systems-level analysis predicts no autotrophy-linked protein-RNA interactions in Clostridium autoethanogenum.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Replicating lipid micelles: a feasible precursor to the origin of life and the earliest appearance of genomes.Human genomics · 2026Review
- Transcription clusters and developmental pathways - nature, nurture, noise.Journal of cell science · 2026Review
- Anticodon loop remodeling and D-stem shape drive the specific recognition of ANN-decoding tRNAs for t6A modification.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Early Evolution of the Prokaryotic Transcription Factor Repertoire.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
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- Non-enzymatic coupling of protometabolic reactions with a prebiotic redox cofactor.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Biological use of molybdenum and tungsten stems back to 3.4 billion years ago.Nature communications · 2026Article
- An atlas of plant selenium metabolism.The New phytologist · 2026Review
- On the molecular basis of enduring memory in neurons, and cell fate in fibroblasts.Nucleic acids research · 2026Review
- Protein folds and catalytic strategies at the origin of biological CO2 fixation.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Redox chemistry of early Earth and the origin of life.Communications chemistry · 2026Review
358 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The concept of a last universal common ancestor of all cells (LUCA, or the progenote) is central to the study of early evolution and life's origin, yet information about how and where LUCA lived is lacking. We investigated all clusters and phylogenetic trees for 6.1 million protein coding genes from sequenced prokaryotic genomes in order to reconstruct the microbial ecology of LUCA. Among 286,514 protein clusters, we identified 355 protein families (∼0.1%) that trace to LUCA by phylogenetic criteria. Because these proteins are not universally distributed, they can shed light on LUCA's physiology. Their functions, properties and prosthetic groups depict LUCA as anaerobic, CO2-fixing, H2-dependent with a Wood-Ljungdahl pathway, N2-fixing and thermophilic. LUCA's biochemistry was replete with FeS clusters and radical reaction mechanisms. Its cofactors reveal dependence upon transition metals, flavins, S-adenosyl methionine, coenzyme A, ferredoxin, molybdopterin, corrins and selenium. Its genetic code required nucleoside modifications and S-adenosyl methionine-dependent methylations. The 355 phylogenies identify clostridia and methanogens, whose modern lifestyles resemble that of LUCA, as basal among their respective domains. LUCA inhabited a geochemically active environment rich in H2, CO2 and iron. The data support the theory of an autotrophic origin of life involving the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway in a hydrothermal setting.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.