A new LUCApedia database for data-driven research on early evolutionary history

TL;DR

This paper introduces a significantly updated LUCApedia database to support computational research on the early evolution of life.

Contribution

The paper presents a redesigned LUCApedia with 17 datasets mapped onto a common framework for early evolutionary studies.

Findings

The database integrates datasets from previous studies on the last universal common ancestor and its predecessors.

The updated LUCApedia allows users to search, browse, and download data through its web server.

Abstract

Many topics within the study of the origin and early evolution of life are amenable to computational research strategies. Over a decade ago, the original LUCApedia was developed in order to facilitate such research. Here we describe a massively overhauled LUCApedia database and web server.

The database is composed of 17 different datasets based on previous studies or published hypotheses about the last universal common ancestor and its evolutionary predecessors. Similar to the original LUCApedia database, these datasets are mapped onto a common framework so that they can be corroborated with one another and used to examine continuity across different stages of early evolution.

The database can be searched, browsed, and downloaded from the LUCApedia web server, https://lucapedia.org/.

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