[continued from previous message]   
      
   using microbial fossils and isotope records under a new cross-bracing   
   implementation. Phylogenetic reconciliation suggests that LUCA had a   
   genome of at least 2.5 Mb (2.49–2.99 Mb), encoding around 2,600   
   proteins, comparable to modern prokaryotes. Our results suggest LUCA was   
   a prokaryote-grade anaerobic acetogen that possessed an early immune   
   system. Although LUCA is sometimes perceived as living in isolation, we   
   infer LUCA to have been part of an established ecological system. The   
   metabolism of LUCA would have provided a niche for other microbial   
   community members and hydrogen recycling by atmospheric photochemistry   
   could have supported a modestly productive early ecosystem.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)