title: The relative ages of eukaryotes and akaryotes.
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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, d.penny@massey.ac.nz.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Penny
authors.forename: Lesley J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Toni K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Daly
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Cox
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000166:cytology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism; D005091:Exons; D007438:Introns; D008540:Meiosis; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008938:Mitosis; D000069497:Origin of Life; D010802:Phylogeny; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism; D017381:Spliceosomes / Q000235:genetics; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D013997:Time Factors