A Microbe Hiding Inside Ocean Plankton Has Just 238,000 DNA Base Pairs, the Smallest Archaeal Genome on Record
Nature World News | 15.10.2026 13:44
Scientists have described a microbe from coastal ocean plankton whose genome is so small that it is pushing researchers to rethink how little genetic material a living cell can get by on. The organism, named Candidatus Sukunaarchaeum mirabile, carries a single loop of DNA just 238,000 base pairs long, the smallest genome ever found in the group of microbes known as archaea.
