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Due to their structural differences, eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells do not divide in the same way. Also, the pattern of cell division that transforms eukaryotic stem cells into gametes (sperm cells in males or egg cells in females), termed meiosis, is different from that of the division of somatic cells in the body. Cell division over 42.
The origin of the eukaryotic cell, or eukaryogenesis, is a milestone in the evolution of life, since eukaryotes include all complex cells and almost all multicellular organisms. The last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) is the hypothetical origin of all living eukaryotes, [71] and was most likely a biological population, not a single ...
The eukaryotic cell cycle consists of four distinct phases: G 1 phase, S phase (synthesis), G 2 phase (collectively known as interphase) and M phase (mitosis and cytokinesis). M phase is itself composed of two tightly coupled processes: mitosis, in which the cell's nucleus divides, and cytokinesis, in which the cell's cytoplasm and cell membrane divides forming two daughter cells.
Prokaryotes do have DNA repair mechanism enriched with recombinational repair, [23] and the existence of prokaryotic life in severe environment indicates the extreme efficiency of this mechanism to help them survive many DNA damages related to the environment. This implies that an extra costly repair in the form of meiosis would be unnecessary.
Though cell reproduction that uses mitosis can reproduce eukaryotic cells, eukaryotes bother with the more complicated process of meiosis because sexual reproduction such as meiosis confers a selective advantage. Notice that when meiosis starts, the two copies of sister chromatids number 2 are adjacent to each other.
Many protists reproduce sexually, as do many multicellular plants, animals, and fungi. In the eukaryotic fossil record, sexual reproduction first appeared about 2.0 billion years ago in the Proterozoic Eon, [64] [65] although a later date, 1.2 billion years ago, has also been presented.
Many eukaryotic organisms including plants, animals, and fungi can also reproduce asexually. [1] In vertebrates , the most common form of asexual reproduction is parthenogenesis , which is typically used as an alternative to sexual reproduction in times when reproductive opportunities are limited.
Some proteins and other features that are key for sexual reproduction may have arisen in bacteria, but sexual reproduction is believed to have developed in an ancient eukaryotic ancestor. [10] In eukaryotes, diploid precursor cells divide to produce haploid cells in a process called meiosis. In meiosis, DNA is replicated to produce a total of ...