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The Archaebacteria and eukaryotic origins

Nature volume 287, pages 248–250 (1980)Cite this article

Abstract

Critical analysis of the phytogeny of prokaryotes is in its infancy. Woese and others1–5 have made the startling proposal that methane-producing bacteria and a few others form a phyletically unified group, the Archaebacteria, as old and as diverse (although not now as numerous) as all other bacteria. The only critique6 of this proposal is inadequate7. Here we present an alternative view, that the Archaebacteria were derived from other bacteria and contain the ancestor of a cell which engulfed others, eventually to become the first eukaryote.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Dept (Whitman), University of Chicago, 915 E. 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60637

    Leigh M. Van Valen & Virginia C. Maiorana

Authors
  1. Leigh M. Van Valen
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  2. Virginia C. Maiorana
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Van Valen, L., Maiorana, V. The Archaebacteria and eukaryotic origins. Nature 287, 248–250 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/287248a0

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