Opinion

Comparative genomics of archaea: how much have we learned in six years, and what's next?

Kira S Makarova and Eugene V Koonin

National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA

author email corresponding author email

Genome Biology 2003, 4:115doi:10.1186/gb-2003-4-8-115

Published:	16 July 2003

Subject areas: Microbiology and parasitology, Evolution, Genome studies, Bioinformatics

Abstract

Archaea comprise one of the three distinct domains of life (with bacteria and eukaryotes). With 16 complete archaeal genomes sequenced to date, comparative genomics has revealed a conserved core of 313 genes that are represented in all sequenced archaeal genomes, plus a variable 'shell' that is prone to lineage-specific gene loss and horizontal gene exchange. The majority of archaeal genes have not been experimentally characterized, but novel functional pathways have been predicted.