Bacteria Archives

A researcher holds a vibrant green sample of thermophilic cyanobacteria collected from a hot spring in Yellowstone’s Lower Geyser Basin. National Park Service photo by Samantha Hilburn, August 2025. Research conducted under Yellowstone National Park research permit YELL-2025-SCL-8336

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Studying Thermophiles In Yellowstone National Park

by Keith CowingSeptember 24, 2025September 24, 2025

Ask any Yellowstone park ranger about hazards in the park, and you will soon learn that hydrothermal features (not bears) have caused more harm than any other natural threat. Park […]

Graphical Abstract -- Journal of Molecular Biology

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Tracing The Origin Of Earth Life’s Genetic Code To Early Protein Structures

by Keith CowingSeptember 17, 2025

Genes are the building blocks of life, and the genetic code provides the instructions for the complex processes that make organisms function. But how and why did it come to […]

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Press Release

Partnership Between Algae And Bacteria Reveals Secrets Of Evolution

by Keith CowingSeptember 3, 2025September 3, 2025

The microscopic alliance between algae and bacteria offers rare, step-by-step snapshots of how bacteria lose genes and adapt to increasing host dependence. This is shown by a new study led […]

Clavascidium lacinulatum (basionym Placidium lacinulatum) Source: Consortium of Lichen Libraria

Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report

UVC-Intense Exoplanets May Not Be Uninhabitable: Evidence from a Desert Lichen

by Keith CowingJune 30, 2025August 23, 2025

Many of the recently discovered Earth-like exoplanets are hosted by M and F stars, stars that emit intense UVC, especially during a flare.

Biochemical requirements and toxicities for oxygen, iron and sulfide restrict conditions for endosymbiosis: Iron, sulfide and oxygen readily react with one another, leading to reservoir fluctuations that characterize Paleoproterozoic marine chemistry. A narrower set of interactive conditions involving these three chemicals (dotted box) are circumscribed by the context of cellular homeostatic constraints, which differ among organisms. Iron is biphasic: it is essential at lower cellular concentrations but toxic at higher cellular concentrations. Iron and oxygen homeostatic constraints must have been operable within archaea and bacteria across the process of endosymbiosis, up to and including full endogenization of the mitochondrion into a eukaryotic organelle. -- biorxiv.org

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Did Iron Suppress Eukaryote Emergence and Early Radiation?

by Keith CowingJune 29, 2025June 28, 2025

The last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) is widely thought to have been an oxygen-respiring organism, arising through endosymbiosis when a free-living bacterium became the mitochondrion.

Clavascidium lacinulatum, or brown stipplescale lichen, is a common sight in the Mojave Desert – credit: Bob O’Kennan via iNaturalist

Analog Studies, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release

Desert Lichen Offers New Evidence For The Possibility Of Life On Other Planets

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2025August 23, 2025

Lichen from the Mojave Desert can survive, and replicate, under levels of extreme solar radiation found on Earth-like planets in other solar systems.

Crystallization of bacteria and archaea.

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

The Possible Crystallization Process in the Origin of Bacteria, Archaea, Viruses, and Mobile Elements

by Keith CowingJune 22, 2025June 21, 2025

We propose a hypothesis for the simultaneous emergence of bacteria, archaea, viruses, and mobile elements by sequential and concrete biochemical pathways.

Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Plant Biology, Press Release, Science Fiction, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Echoes of “Avatar”: Spruce Trees Communicate During A Solar Eclipse

by Keith CowingApril 30, 2025April 30, 2025

Editor’s note: In the “Avatar” film series the interconnectedness of trees and other life forms is at the core of Pandoran ecosystems. On Earth, large expanses of trees exists wich […]

Analog Studies, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Viral Activity In Lake Analogs Of Anoxic Early Earth Oceans

by Keith CowingApril 28, 2025September 18, 2025

Background Meromictic lakes, with their stratified water columns, are modern analogs for ancient euxinic (anoxic and sulfidic) oceans, where anaerobic sulfur-oxidizing purple and green sulfur bacteria (PSB and GSB) dominated […]

Filament of new cable bacteria species. Credit Provided by Cheng Li

Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Commercial & Private Sector, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Press Release

Electrothrix yaqonensis: A New Species Of Electricity-conducting Organism

by Keith CowingApril 26, 2025April 26, 2025

Scientists have identified a novel species of bacteria that acts as electrical wiring, potentially ushering in a new era of bioelectronic devices for use in medicine, industry, food safety, and […]