Scientist finds a whole new 'domain' of life

Scientist finds a whole new 'domain' of life

www.telegraph.co.uk

It is life but not as we know it – a scientist claims to have discovered not just a new species but a whole new branch of the tree of life. Living things are currently split into three branches or domains – eukaryotes, or complex celled organisms such as animals, plants and humans – and two simple celled microorganism divisions – bacteria and archaea.
But now a researcher working with the laboratory of the maverick scientist Dr Craig Venter claims he might have discovered a fourth.

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Professor Jonathan Eisen, Trying to classify the new DNA has proved impossible and so Prof Eisen has published his findings in the journal Public Library of Science in the hope others can help. The question is, what are they from?" said Prof Eisen.
"They could represent an unusual virus, which is interesting enough. More interestingly still, they could represent a totally new branch in the tree of life.

I got to say this is one heck of a story, Prof Eisen got the seawater samples collected between 2003 and 2007 from the world's oceans found by Dr Venter on his yacht, Sorcerer II and goes on to say that this could lead to more powerful and cheaper computers.So what say you guys?

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Originally posted by FarBeyondDriven69
goes on to say that this could lead to more powerful and cheaper computers.)

not lead to he says trying to sequence the novel genes while difficult benefits from ever more powerful computing ...

Prof Eisen stumbled on variations of two genes called RecA and RpoB, both of which are old and abundant, which had different characteristics to anything in the public genetic databases.

I suspect this is about the potential to commercially exploit gene sequences. I hope I am wrong. Scientists are starting to work towards the early release of much of their work because all over the world, funding is drying up for research that isn't clearly significant. So I am inclined to say we shall be seeing many more 'important' scientific "almost" discoveries being spoken of in the media....

If this is a new domain of life, taxonomists are going to have a rough time, because the ability to jumble chemical sequences is practically infinite.