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The Relative Ages of Eukaryotes and Akaryotes

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Abstract

The Last Eukaryote Common Ancestor (LECA) appears to have the genetics required for meiosis, mitosis, nucleus and nuclear substructures, an exon/intron gene structure, spliceosomes, many centres of DNA replication, etc. (and including mitochondria). Most of these features are not generally explained by models for the origin of the Eukaryotic cell based on the fusion of an Archeon and a Bacterium. We find that the term ‘prokaryote’ is ambiguous and the non-phylogenetic term akaryote should be used in its place because we do not yet know the direction of evolution between eukaryotes and akaryotes. We use the term ‘protoeukaryote’ for the hypothetical stem group ancestral eukaryote that took up a bacterium as an endosymbiont that formed the mitochondrion. It is easier to make detailed models with a eukaryote to an akaryote transition, rather than vice versa. So we really are at a phylogenetic impasse in not being confident about the direction of change between eukaryotes and akaryotes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was started for the Les Treilles foundation workshop on ‘The origins of sex and of modern eukaryotes’ held in the south of France in July 2012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    David Penny, Toni K. Daly & Simon J. Cox

  2. Health Sciences, Universal College of Learning, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Lesley J. Collins

  3. NorthTec, Whangarei, New Zealand

    Toni K. Daly

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  1. David Penny
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Correspondence to David Penny.

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Penny, D., Collins, L.J., Daly, T.K. et al. The Relative Ages of Eukaryotes and Akaryotes. J Mol Evol 79, 228–239 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-014-9643-y

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