Overview
- Researchers report in Current Biology that high‑resolution electron cryotomography captured an Asgard archaeon physically connected to a bacterium by tiny nanotubes.
- The paired microbes exchanged compounds such as vitamins, nutrients, and hydrogen, which signals metabolic cooperation relevant to the rise of eukaryotes.
- The team could not grow the archaeon on its own in the lab, suggesting it depends on partner organisms in mixed cultures from Shark Bay stromatolites.
- The newly identified species, Nerearchaeum marumarumayae, was named with guidance from Malgana elders and language expert Kymberley Oakley after sampling living microbial mats in Western Australia.
- Years of targeted cultivation combined with deep‑learning protein modeling helped interpret the cell structures, and the authors stress Shark Bay’s cultural importance and growing climate and human pressures.