Ancient Yet Alive: Exploring Extant Microbial Lineages from Earth’s Earliest Life
A special issue of Bacteria (ISSN 2674-1334).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 66
Special Issue Editors
Interests: prenatal exposures; environmental chemicals; environmental toxicants; humans and model organisms; health outcomes in offspring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: systems biology; microbial physiology during infection; genomics; metagenomics; host/microbiome interactions; antimicrobial resistance; bacterial genomic diversity and evolution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue, “Ancient Yet Alive: Exploring Extant Microbial Lineages from Earth’s Earliest Life”, highlights microbial groups that originated billions of years ago and persist today as “living fossils.” These ancient lineages—including Asgard archaea and other extremophiles—offer a rare insight into the early evolution of life and the origins of complex cellular structures. As interest grows in the evolutionary bridge between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, Asgard archaea have drawn particular attention through genomic analysis of both uncultured and newly cultured species, as well as electron microscopy revealing novel cellular architectures.
This Special Issue invites contributions focused on cutting-edge methods—such as metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and cryo-EM—used to study the biochemical, physiological, and ecological traits that enable these microbes to thrive in extreme environments. Such approaches not only illuminate how early life functioned but also enhance our ability to detect biosignatures of potential life elsewhere.
By understanding how ancient microorganisms survive in analog environments on Earth, we refine the tools and criteria for identifying extraterrestrial life in our solar system—on Mars, Europa, or Enceladus—where similar conditions may exist. We welcome contributions that advance both evolutionary biology and astrobiology through the lens of ancient, living microbes.
Prof. Dr. Douglas M. Ruden
Prof. Dr. Bart C. Weimer
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Bacteria is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- asgard archaea
- ancient lineages
- extremophiles
- genomics
- structural biology
- adaptation
- evolutionary biology
- astrobiology
- bacterial paleontology
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