Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The three-domain system adds a level of classification (the domains) "above" the kingdoms present in the previously used five- or six-kingdom systems.This classification system recognizes the fundamental divide between the two prokaryotic groups, insofar as Archaea appear to be more closely related to eukaryotes than they are to other prokaryotes – bacteria-like organisms with no cell nucleus.
It was also found that the eukaryotes are more closely related to the Archaea than they are to the Eubacteria. Although the primacy of the Eubacteria-Archaea divide has been questioned, it has been upheld by subsequent research. [22] There is no consensus on how many kingdoms exist in the classification scheme proposed by Woese.
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 .
According to the domain system, the tree of life consists of either three domains, Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya, [1] or two domains, Archaea and Bacteria, with Eukarya included in Archaea. [3] [4] In the three-domain model, the first two are prokaryotes, single-celled microorganisms without a membrane-bound nucleus.
A lineage of archaea discovered in 2015, Lokiarchaeum (of the proposed new phylum "Lokiarchaeota"), named for a hydrothermal vent called Loki's Castle in the Arctic Ocean, was found to be the most closely related to eukaryotes known at that time. It has been called a transitional organism between prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
The three-domain system presumes that eukaryotes are more closely related to archaea than to Bacteria and are sister group to Archaea, thus, it treats them as separate domain. [29] As more new archaea were discovered in the early 2000s, this distinction became doubtful as eukaryotes became deeply nested within Archaea.
The eukaryotes seemingly emerged within the Asgard archaea, and are closely related to the Heimdallarchaeia. [5] This implies that there are only two domains of life, Bacteria and Archaea, with eukaryotes incorporated among the Archaea.
Finally, at the highest rank all of these are grouped together with all other organisms possessing cell nuclei in the domain Eukarya. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature defines rank as: "The level, for nomenclatural purposes, of a taxon in a taxonomic hierarchy (e.g. all families are for nomenclatural purposes at the same rank ...