New clues to origins of complex life revealed by MSU biologist in Nature journal

Contact: Sarah Nicholas

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State biologist Matthew W. Brown, the university’s Donald L. Hall Professor of Biology, is part of an international research team whose groundbreaking discovery is featured today [Nov. 19] in Nature—one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals. The published research unearths a new organism and phylum, reshaping the tree of life.

The study “Rare Microbial Relict Sheds Light on an Ancient Eukaryotic Supergroup” describes the discovery of Solarion arienae, a previously unknown unicellular organism that provides new insight into the earliest stages of complex life on Earth. This microscopic protist—a tiny, single-cell organism seen only via a microscope—was discovered through collaboration between Brown’s lab at MSU and Ivan Čepička’s laboratory at Charles University in the Czech Republic. The organism displays two distinct cell types and a unique predatory structure unlike any seen before.

By analyzing Solarion arienae’s genetic and cellular makeup, the research team identified traces of ancient mitochondrial pathways—molecular machinery inherited from the bacteria that originally gave rise to mitochondria.

These findings suggest that the earliest eukaryotes were far more metabolically versatile than their modern descendants.

The study also establishes a new phylum, Caelestes, and introduces a previously unrecognized eukaryotic supergroup, Disparia, reshaping the deepest levels of the tree of life and transforming scientists’ understanding of how complex cells evolved.

Brown, who served as co-corresponding author, said the discovery “offers a rare window into early eukaryotic evolution, helping us reconstruct how the building blocks of complex life first came together.

“The existence of Solarion and the discovery of its closest relatives fundamentally expands our view of eukaryotic biodiversity, supporting a revised framework of early mitochondrial evolution, and to me, most importantly demonstrates how classical cultivation can still reveal lineages that reshape our understanding of life’s deepest branches,” Brown added.

Last month, Brown was named the 2025 recipient of MSU’s Ralph E. Powe Research Excellence Award, the university’s highest honor for research achievement. The award, established in memory of MSU alumnus and former vice president for research Ralph E. Powe, recognizes one faculty member each year whose work exemplifies innovation and global impact.

A leading figure in evolutionary biology, Brown has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers with nearly 9,000 citations and secured nearly $4 million in research funding. His work explores microorganisms and how complex organisms evolved from microbial ancestors, combining microscopy, genomics, bioinformatics and evolutionary biology to study how life unfolded across eons of time.

Also this fall, Brown received new support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which awarded an $870,000 collaborative grant to Brown’s MSU lab and one at Texas Tech University, led by Brown’s former MSU graduate student and Texas Tech Assistant Professor Alexander K. Tice. The project will expand a widely used software suite that helps scientists construct large-scale evolutionary datasets with greater precision and transparency. The Brown Lab will receive $436,427 to advance the tool’s development, extend its reach across the tree of life and host international training workshops for evolutionary biologists.

Brown’s work has been featured in multiple high-impact journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, where his study on 750-million-year-old microbial fossils also sheds light on Earth’s early evolutionary history. His research also has been supported by a National Science Foundation grant exceeding $1 million to explore the evolutionary history of one of life’s oldest lineages, the Amoebozoa.

Since joining MSU in 2013, Brown has earned numerous accolades, including the 2018 College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Eminent Scholar Award and election as a fellow of the Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing and Biotechnology.

For more details about Brown’s research, visit www.amoeba.msstate.edu.

For more information about MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Biological Sciences, visit www.cas.msstate.edu and www.biology.msstate.edu.

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