Sir
In his Concepts essay, Norman R. Pace argues that the concept of prokaryotes is misleading and proposes that the word 'prokaryote' be banned from the scientific literature1. We disagree.
Pace contends that the term prokaryote refers to the lack of a nucleus and that it is hence a “negative and therefore scientifically invalid description” of cell organization, because “no one can define what is a prokaryote”. The former is a matter of opinion, and the latter is arguably incorrect.
Prokaryotes are cells with co-transcriptional translation on their main chromosomes; they translate nascent messenger RNAs into protein. The presence of this character distinguishes them from cells that possess a nucleus and do not translate nascent transcripts on their main chromosomes2. Although historically founded on a negative trait (lacking a nucleus), the term prokaryote does indeed specifically designate organisms that are defined by a positive character.
Pace proposes that we should speak only of archaea and bacteria instead of prokaryotes, and that if a collective term is needed to designate those cells that are not eukaryotes, the term 'microbe' should be used. That suggestion, too, is unacceptable, because many eukaryotes are microbes.
References
Pace, N. R. Nature 441, 289 (2006).
Martin, W. & Koonin, E. V. Nature 440, 41–45 (2006).
Embley, T. M. & Martin, W. Nature 440, 623–630 (2006).
Walsh, D. A. & Doolittle, W. F. Curr. Biol. 15, R237–R240 (2005).
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Martin, W., Koonin, E. A positive definition of prokaryotes. Nature 442, 868 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/442868c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/442868c
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