Inference and reconstruction of the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes
In the ongoing debates about eukaryogenesis-the series of evolutionary events leading to the emergence of the eukaryotic cell from prokaryotic ancestors-members of the Asgard archaea play a key part as the closest archaeal relatives of eukaryotes 1. However, the nature and phylogenetic identity of the last common ancestor of Asgard archaea and eukaryotes remain unresolved 2-4. Here we analyse dist
