Could there be undiscovered branches on the tree of life?

There’s never been a better time to hunt for undiscovered lifeforms right here on Earth.

In an article published in Science this week, Eddy Rubin, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute at Berkeley, California, explains that the time is right to scour the world for undiscovered life, thanks to innovative genetic research techniques at our disposal.

He’s not just talking about stumbling across a new species or genus of frog or insect, but an entire new domain of life. We are talking about the closest thing to an alien life form we could get, but right here in our own backyard.

All known life is divided into three umbrella groups known as domains. There is eukaryota, which includes all animals, plants and fungi that share the same cellular organization. Then there is the bacteria domain and the most recently-created group archaea, which includes microbes that live in extreme environments and share the same primitive traits. But could there be another, completely separate domain of life that has eluded detection? Rubin seems to think so.

“In the past, the development of new technologies have led to the discovery of new forms of life on Earth,” he explained to Yahoo Canada News.

“Prior to the microscope, we thought that there was only plants and animals, but after the discovery of the microscope we realized that there were microbes sharing our planet also. And now we have this powerful genomic technology in position to look for life on Earth in ways that has never been done previously.”

'No shortage of possiblities'

Scientists believe that with all the amazing advancements in genomics technology — the ability to decipher and read the entire DNA library of any organism — researchers may be able to search for lifeforms that until now have been lost in the darkness.

And the key to actually identifying a new microbe, Rubin says, is not to be prejudiced in terms of what they may look like; we may have to think outside the box in terms of their chemistry.

“We need to keep an open mind to life with different genetic codes and fundamentally different genetic chemistry that which we know,” said Rubin.

In the 3.7 billion years since life arose on our planet, it’s diversified and evolved into all kinds of specialized niches. And when it comes to the microbial world, there is no shortage of possibilities.

Where might we find them?

Geographic locales ripe for discovery of novel life include extreme, inhospitable and isolated environments; in fact, they may actually be preferred niches for extremophilic life. In recent years, many organisms have been found to thrive in hostile environments — under high pressures and temperatures at the bottom of the ocean, around volcanic vents and even inside rocks. These weird creatures have pushed the boundaries of where we once thought life could exist.

Rubin says these would be areas that would be potentially sheltered from their more modern microbial competitors.

Current theories say that life on our planet started at one particularly moment in time, but with genomic technology we are in the position to examine whether this is actually true.

What happens if we actually find a brand-new life form? Rubin says that simply the hunt itself could lead to important discoveries along the way.

“I am certain that the quest to find new life, even if we fail, will likely reveal unexpected and valuable insights about the fruits of more than 3 billion years of biological tinkering.”