Genome evolution: An archaeon stripped bare.

A newly described archaeon has the smallest archaeal genome reported, at less than half the previous record, retaining mainly self-replication machinery and nearly no metabolism.

• Why it matters: The finding challenges what is thought to be required for archaeal life and highlights a major gap in understanding how such minimal genomes evolve and function.
• What they did: The team characterized a newly described archaeon and compared its genome size to the prior smallest archaeal record, focusing on which metabolic pathways were retained or lost.
• The result: The extreme reduction implies a minimal set of genes for replication, enabling new hypotheses about genome evolution and the limits of archaeal biology.

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