Scientists make major breakthrough in origin of life on Earth

Researchers investigating the origin of complex life on Earth might have just made a major breakthrough.

The origin of humanity and the planet Earth is probably debated more than whether the chicken or the egg came first, with some choosing to believe that the big bang is what created life, whereas others go down a more religious route.

Charles Darwin of course penned the theory of evolution when it comes to humans but scientists have been more stumped when it comes to deducing exactly how plants, fungi and animals have evolved over the millennia.

Technological advancements mean that we're regularly making new scientific discoveries but a new study from the University of Texas at Austin might just change what we know about the cells that make up the DNA inside mitochondria, aka the powerhouse of the cell.

Essentially, there are two different major cell types, namely eukaryotes which, as Im' sure you'll remember from high school biology, are filled to the brim with internal structures like nuclei and mitochondria.

Then there's the humble prokaryotes, which manage just fine by themselves.

It might just change a long-held belief (Getty Stock)

These eukaryotes cells make up pretty much everything we can see with the naked eye, otherwise known as complex life, whereas prokaryotes include bacteria and another group of single-celled organisms called archaea.

It's long been accepted that complex life emerged from an archaeal cell, specifically a type called an Asgard archaeon, which swallowed a bacterium and eventually changed into what we recognise as the mitochondria today.

Research has previously suggested that they thrive in a poorly oxygenated environment, but now the new research from the University of Texas suggests otherwise, as it found that Asgard archaea regularly use or tolerate oxygen.

Speaking to IFLScience, study lead Brett Baker said: “One of the big questions in biology and evolution of life on the planet is what events led to the formation of complex life (plants and animals). This study provides new clues about the lifestyle of our microbial ancestors, and we think they could breathe oxygen like us!”

It marks a big breakthrough in what we know about cells (Getty Stock)

The research saw them analyse samples from shallow water sediments which helped them to realise that interactions similar to the ones thought to have originated eukaryotic life are still observable today.

Author Kathryn Appler added: "This massive sequencing effort nearly doubled the number of genomes from the closest known archaeal relatives of the host that gave rise to eukaryotes, providing a more comprehensive view of their ecology and metabolism."

Baker concluded: “Most Asgards alive today have been found in environments without oxygen. But it turns out that the ones most closely related to eukaryotes live in places with oxygen, such as shallow coastal sediments and floating in the water column, and they have a lot of metabolic pathways that use oxygen. That suggests that our eukaryotic ancestor likely had these processes, too.”