Microbes may be miniscule, but they have a massive impact on Earth and its habitability. They are uniquely different from animals, plants, and other eukaryotic organisms in that they can gain energy ...

Researchers now reveal that nature's storage solution first evolved in ancient microbes living on Earth between one and two billion years ago. In almost every human cell, two metres-long DNA has to ...

Introduces nature and diversity of microorganisms and their implications for all of biology. Covers comparative properties of eukaryotic and prokaryotic microbes, as well as their roles as disease ...

In the beginning, there was boredom. Following the emergence of cellular life on earth, some 3.5 billion years ago, simple cells lacking a nucleus and other detailed internal structure dominated the ...

The molecular remains of a microbe called protosterol biota appeared within the Barney Creek Formation in Australia’s Northern Territory — and those traces could hold information on the origin of ...

Since the bacterial-origin CRISPR-Cas system rose to popularity as a genome editing tool, scientists have wondered whether other genome editors exist in nature. Now, two independent research teams ...

Artist's rendering of of two primordial eukaryotic organisms of the "Protosterol Biota" on the ocean floor. Based on molecular fossils, organisms of the Protosterol Biota lived in the oceans about 1.6 ...

In almost every human cell, two metres-long DNA has to fit within a nucleus that is just 8 millionths of a metre wide. Like wool around a spool, the extreme space challenge requires DNA to wrap around ...