Title: Making the Case Against Archaea | Scienceline
Headings: Making the Case Against Archaea
Making the Case Against Archaea
Disease hunters target an ancient form of life.
Robert Goodier • January 2, 2009
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Content: Those found in humans and other animals are methanogens – they consume hydrogen made by bacteria and excrete methane gas. ( Not all archaea produce methane, but they are the only creatures that can – it’s one of the differences that sets them apart from the other two domains of life.) Thriving on the waste of other microbes, they clean house, which may allow disease-causing bacteria to multiply. Archaea have a so-called grandfather, Ralph Wolfe, who is skeptical they could cause disease. Wolfe, a microbiologist at the University of Illinois, earned his nickname studying archaea for decades, since before they were given their own taxonomic domain. He worked alongside Carl Woese as the concept of three domains of life gained momentum. Archaea, Wolfe believes, are too primitive and biologically isolated to cause disease in animals, though he does not discount the idea of the consortium effect. “I would say it’s a dead end, but in science you can never tell,” he said. He does agree with Thomas on one point, though: studying archaea is tough, and was harder still when he started his work without the benefit of the technology available today.