Highlight: Unraveling the Origins of LUCA and LECA on the Tree of Life
Casey McGrath
Genome Biology and Evolution, Volume 14, Issue 6, June 2022, evac072,
https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evac072
Published: 06 June 2022 Article history Accepted: 10 May 2022 Published: 06 June 2022
The latest Virtual Issue from Genome Biology and Evolution highlights articles that provide new insight into the deep evolutionary relationships among extant organisms and the origin of eukaryotes from among archaeal lineages. All cellular organisms are descended from a shared ancestor, often referred to as LUCA—the last universal common ancestor. Relationships among these organisms can be depicted by an evolutionary network known as the “tree of life”, which for the past few decades has included three major forms of life—bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes (fig. 1). Evolutionary biologists have long sought to understand the placement of LUCA within this framework, as well as the origin of LECA—the last eukaryotic common ancestor. Unfortunately, accurately inferring relationships among microbial lineages presents a major challenge due to the vast evolutionary distances involved, as well as the frequent lateral transfer of genetic material between lineages. Recently, however, new data and methods have resulted in profound changes to our understanding of the tree of life.
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