SPARC – Symbiotic Partners and Asgard Research Cruise
We are leading a Research cruise off the coast of Uruguay in November 2025 on board the RV Falkor (too).
You can also follow the R/V Falkor (too) and ROV SuBastian in real time from home https://soi-vessel-tracker.web.app/
Purpose of the Expedition
One of the greatest mysteries in biology is the series of events that led to the origin of complex cellular life–the eukaryotes. The first eukaryotic cells were derived from an interaction between two single-celled organisms: a bacterium and an archaeal host. The bacteria in this relationship became the mitochondria (the energy generating organelle) and have been shown to be related to Alphaproteobacteria. However, our understanding of this relationship has been limited by a lack of knowledge about the archaeal host. In recent years, advances in genome sequencing technologies and computational approaches have enabled us to obtain genomes directly from nature. This has led to the decoding of several novel lineages of Archaea, referred to as the “Asgards,” that are the closest relatives to eukaryotes on the tree of life. Asgard genomes contain a variety of building blocks of complex cellular life, leading to the hypothesis that the original archaeal host is most closely related to the extant Asgard group Hodarchaeales, within the Heimdallarchaeia. Little is known about these microbes that were pivotal in the evolution of life on the planet. For example, no potential bacteria symbiotic partners have been detected. Indeed, no bacterial symbionts of these archaea have ever been identified, highlighting the need for novel approaches to enriching and interpreting archaeal genomes from the environment. The collection of fresh samples containing Asgards and their potential partners would enable us to observe a modern form of eukaryogenesis and will advance our understanding of our earliest origins and link it to its environmental context.
The research team consists of 25 scientists from around the world (UC San Diego, Charles University – Prague, Cambridge University – UK, Harvard University, UC Santa Barbara, Montana State University, Uruguay, and UT Austin)
The science on board is supported by a generous grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
I will be posting updates as much as I can, but you can also follow Schmidt for updates at:
Sept 16 – Shipping container arrives on campus in Austin and loading begins.
