Editorial: Ecology, Metabolism and Evolution of Archaea-Perspectives From Proceedings of the International Workshop on Geo-Omics of Archaea

To facilitate global efforts in addressing fundamental questions related to the biology of archaea, an international consortium of experts organized the International Workshop on Geo-Omics of Archaea (IWGOA), with the overarching themes of Ecology/Biogeochemistry, Metabolism, and Evolution. The IWGOA was held in Shenzhen, China, from October 25th to 27th, 2019. The meeting was attended by more than 200 attendees from China, Japan, USA, Australia, Germany, and France. Some of the most exciting oral and poster presentations made at the IWGOA are celebrated in this Research Topic Figure 1. The 21 manuscripts herein span different aspects of archaeal biology in both extreme and “non-extreme” environments in both marine and terrestrial settings and use a variety of approaches—community ecology, environmental lipidomics and genomics, organismal biology, and nucleic acid biochemistry—embodying diverse research thrusts that makes archaeal biology so exciting. At the same time, the manuscripts include over 100 authors from Asia, North America, and Europe, realizing our goal to engage a global audience in the biology of archaea