300122 VO Biology and Evolution of Archaea (2023W)

The Archaea are a group of organisms clearly distinguishable from the domains of the Bacteria and the Eukarya. Since their recognition as a separate domain of life, the Archaea have played a crucial part in models of the early evolution of cellular life forms, giving rise to a number of different models of the course of evolution on Earth.
In particular, their information processing systems (transcription, replication, etc) exhibit striking similarity to that of Eukaryotes. Novel findings, such as the discovery of Asgardarchaea and DPANN (Diapherotrites, Parvarchaeota, Aenigmarchaeota, Nanoarchaeota und Nanohaloarchaeota) show that Archaea have further surprises in store in both ecological and evolutionary aspects.
Further, many archaeal species are prevalent in extreme environments and hold a number of the records for growth and survival under many ecological extremes. In addition, at least two lineages of Archaea are widely distributed in moderate environments and play crucial roles in global biogeochemical cycles and in greenhouse gas emissions.
This lecture series deals with the ecological, cellular, molecular biological, physiological, and evolutionary aspects of the most important Archaea.
The lectures will be held in English.