Scientists know relatively little about archaea compared to their bacterial counterparts ... “Is there any direct interaction with human cells, like epithelial cells of the gut?” Albers wondered.

Archaea are a distinct domain of life—along with bacteria and eukaryotes (i.e., organisms with a cell nucleus such as animals, plants and fungi). Although they appear similar to bacteria under ...

as well as in a few bacteria and archaea species, the new study establishes divergent transcription—the reading of genes in both directions—as a widespread feature conserved across all three domains ...