Novel genes are also acquired by transduction (mediated by bacteriophages, plasmids or transposons), by conjugation (DNA transfer between cells) or by transformation (natural DNA uptake). Horizontal ...

While prokaryotic cells do not have membrane-bound structures, they do have distinct cellular regions (Figure 1). In prokaryotic cells, DNA bundles together in a region called the nucleoid. Primitive ...

Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, 35043 Marburg, Germany Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), 35043 Marburg, Germany ...

As is so often the case in science, this finding solved one mystery about the roles these unstructured rogue proteins play in the cell only to open another deeper question about what biomolecular ...

For many years, prokaryotic cells were distinguished from eukaryotic cells based on the simplicity of their cytoplasm, in which the presence of organelles and cytoskeletal structures had not been ...

In this case, a eukaryotic algal cell swallowed a prokaryotic bacterial cell. "The first time we think it happened, it gave rise to all complex life," Coale said, referring to the evolution of ...

But a recent discovery upends that rule. In two recent papers, an international team of scientists describe the first known nitrogen-fixing organelle within a eukaryotic cell. The organelle is the ...

Cell division is a fundamental process for all living organisms. Despite billion years of evolution, prokaryotes, including bacteria and archaea, utilize only a few conserved mechanisms to divide.

An illustration of a magnifying glass. An illustration of a magnifying glass.

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