Station 4 | SOI Divestream 874

We are sampling off the coast of Uruguay in the Atlantic Ocean. The objective of this dive is to collect marine sediments to understand the ecology and evolution of Asgard Archaea. These are a group of microbes that are closest to eukaryotes (including plants and animals) on the tree of life. We will be diving to a site that is roughly 2,800m from the ocean surface. We are going to be using this mud to obtain genomes, culture, and do physiological experiments on the Asgard Archaea. Since there has little genomic approaches in this area, we are in this part of the ocean, we have little understanding of the microbial diversity present here. So, we are surveying the biodiversity by looking at proteins that can be used to place them on the tree of life. As a first pass here at sea we are targeting lineages that are unique from what has been seen before. So, by “novel and high interest” we are looking completely new phyla (anywhere on the tree) and new lineages of Asgards.

The science on this expedition is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

FKt251103 - Searching for the Asgards #AsgardArchaea

More expedition information: https://schmidtocean.org/cruise/searc...
More ROV SuBastian information: https://schmidtocean.org/technology/r...
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Schmidt Ocean Institute is a 501(c)(3) private non-profit operating foundation established to advance oceanographic research, discovery, and knowledge, and catalyze sharing of information about the oceans.