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Light micrograph of a moss's leaf cells at 400X magnification. The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to cell biology: . Cell biology – A branch of biology that includes study of cells regarding their physiological properties, structure, and function; the organelles they contain; interactions with their environment; and their life cycle, division, and death.
The cell had a lipid bilayer; it possessed the genetic code and ribosomes which translated from DNA or RNA to proteins. The LUCA probably existed at latest 3.6 billion years ago, and possibly as early as 4.3 billion years ago [2] or earlier. The nature of this point or stage of divergence remains a topic of research.
Evolution of cells refers to the evolutionary origin and subsequent evolutionary development of cells. Cells first emerged at least 3.8 billion years ago [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] approximately 750 million years after Earth was formed.
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all life on Earth.
Some examples of evolution in species over many generations are the peppered moth and flightless birds. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biology emerged through what Julian Huxley called the modern synthesis of understanding, from previously unrelated fields of biological research, such as genetics and ecology, systematics , and ...
Convergent evolution—the repeated evolution of similar traits in multiple lineages which all ancestrally lack the trait—is rife in nature, as illustrated by the examples below. The ultimate cause of convergence is usually a similar evolutionary biome , as similar environments will select for similar traits in any species occupying the same ...
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all forms of life. Every cell consists of cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane; many cells contain organelles, each with a specific function. The term comes from the Latin word cellula meaning 'small room'. Most cells are only visible under a microscope.
The terms pre-cell (precell), proto-cell (protocell), etc. are frequently used to designate hypothetical ancestral entities precursing complete cells. The meanings of these terms vary with the different hypotheses for the early evolution of life and, accordingly, with the corresponding publications.