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The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the hypothesized common ancestral cell from which the three domains of life, the Bacteria, the Archaea, and the Eukarya originated. The cell had a lipid bilayer; it possessed the genetic code and ribosomes which translated from DNA or RNA to proteins.
This concept is known as the RNA world hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, the ancient RNA world transitioned into the modern cellular world via the evolution of protein synthesis, followed by replacement of many cellular ribozyme catalysts by protein-based enzymes.
In 1933, while studying virgin sea urchin eggs, Jean Brachet suggested that DNA is found in cell nucleus and that RNA is present exclusively in the cytoplasm. At the time, "yeast nucleic acid" (RNA) was thought to occur only in plants, while "thymus nucleic acid" (DNA) only in animals.
Synthesis of RNA typically occurs in the cell nucleus and is usually catalyzed by an enzyme—RNA polymerase—using DNA as a template, a process known as transcription. Initiation of transcription begins with the binding of the enzyme to a promoter sequence in the DNA (usually found "upstream" of a gene).
Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organization, from kingdoms to species, and individual organisms and molecules, such as DNA and proteins. The similarities between all present day organisms imply a common ancestor from which all known species, living and extinct, have diverged.
The cell on the left is going through mitosis and its chromosomes have condensed. Cell nucleus: A cell's information center, the cell nucleus is the most conspicuous organelle found in a eukaryotic cell. It houses the cell's chromosomes, and is the place where almost all DNA replication and RNA synthesis (transcription) occur.
Small RNA that is activated by SgrR in Escherichia coli during glucose-phosphate stress shRNA: short hairpin RNA - siRNA: small interfering RNA - SL RNA spliced leader RNA multiple families: SmY RNA: mRNA trans-splicing RF01844: Small nuclear RNAs found in some species of nematode worms, thought to be involved in mRNA trans-splicing snoRNA ...
All known extant (surviving) organisms are based on the same biochemical processes: genetic information encoded as nucleic acid (DNA, or RNA for many viruses), transcribed into RNA, then translated into proteins (that is, polymers of amino acids) by highly conserved ribosomes.