Archaea and the origin of eukaryotes

Archaea and the origin of eukaryotes

The Archaea was recognized as a third domain of life 40 years ago. In this Review, Emeet al. outline a brief history of the changing shape of the tree of life and examine how the recent discovery of diverse archaeal lineages has changed our understanding of the evolutionary relationships between the three domains of life and the origin of the eukaryotic cell. Woese and Fox's 1977 paper on the discovery of the Archaea triggered a revolution in th…

The eukaryotic cell emerged as an evolutionary algorithmic phase transition - Scientific Inquirer

An international collaboration between four senior scientists from Mainz, Valencia, Madrid, and Zurich has published groundbreaking research in the journal PNAS, shedding light on the most significant increase in complexity in the history of life’s evolution on Earth: the origin of the eukaryotic cell. While the endosymbiotic theory is widely accepted, the billions of years that have passed since the fusion of an Archaea and a Bacteria have resu…