Preview

The Prokaryotic Cell

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
904 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Prokaryotic Cell
The prokaryotic cell precedes any forms of Bacteria, Archaea, and eventually Eukaryotes by approximately two billion years. This cell was the original life form on the planet and represents the smallest and least complex of all organisms. Through the process of mutation and adaptation they were able to survive to evolve into our modern day Bacteria, Archaea, Fungi and Protists. These post organisms have benefited from their early ancestor, by way of Endosymbiosis. Intricate protest and fungi are also able to use these genetic and chemical changes to their advantage and are very successful organisms.
A prokaryote is a single celled organism that is lacking a nucleus, mitochondria, and other membrane bound organelles. So determining the phylogenetic relationships among the present-day domains of life, the Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryote, has been of central importance to the study of early cellular evolution. Primordial Earth was a harsh environment however two of the main domains of prokaryotes were able to form. Archaea and Bacteria have a few differences with respect to DNA transcription, translation, and replication. Apart from that however they are very similar. Bacteria are the more complex organism of the two and were eventually were put to further use in the evolutionary path of the eukaryotic cell.
The theorized course by which prokaryotes paved the way to the first eukaryotic cells is known as endosymbiosis. The Endosymbiosis theory attempts to explain the origins of eukaryotic cell organelles such as mitochondria in animals and fungi and chloroplasts in plants. Endo means “within” and symbiosis is a type of “cooperation”. An early primitive heterotrophic prokaryotic cell engulfed an ancient auto-trophic bacterium and used its function to facilitate the creation of energy for the host cell. And thus the first eukaryotic cell was born. This eukaryotic cell first lost its cell wall and then the membrane of the cell eventually folded in on itself and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mito Case Study

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Answer: The endosymbiotic hypothesis is that a prokaryotic cell “ate” smaller organelles which evolved into what they are today.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    All organisms are made of cells. The cell is the simplest collection of matter that can be alive. Cells are the basic structural and functional units of every organism. Cells fall into two distinct types: Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic. While Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cells are similar in that both types of cells are bounded by a plasma membrane, all contain cytosol, and all have chromosomes and ribosomes; they differ in the location of their DNA, organelles in the cytoplasm, and their size.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cells are the basic functional units of all organisms. Cells are the smallest unit of life and are often called the "building blocks of life". The distinction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes is considered to be the most important variation among groups of organisms. Eukaryotic cells contain membrane-bound organelles, such as the nucleus, while prokaryotic cells do not. The differences in cellular structure of prokaryotes and eukaryotes include the presence of mitochondria and chloroplasts, the cell wall, and the structure of chromosomal DNA. In this lab four cells were observed and they were Onion Epidermis Cell stained with Iodine, Elodea Freshwater Plant Cell, Epithelial Cells aka Human Cheek cells stained with Crystal Violet, and Unknown Cell. The difference between animal and plants cells is that animal cells does not have a cell wall or chloroplasts but plant cells do. Animal cells are round and irregular in shape while plant cells have fixed, rectangular shapes. Plant cells contains a large and central vacuoles while animal cells contains small and fewer vacuoles.…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ap Biology Free Response

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A. The three-domain system allows for the conclusion that the previous five kingdoms were more connected than was believed. Out of the five previous kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Protista, Fungi, and Monera, four of the five kingdoms were placed in the same domain- Eukarya. The one remaining kingdom was separated into two domains- Bacteria and Archaea. This separation was unusual as it was previously thought that Bacteria and Archaea were closely related, as they were both prokaryotic. It is now thought that Archaea is more closely related to Eukarya than it is to Bacteria.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    References: Elizabeth J. Walsh, Paul E. Hotchkin, Shawn T. Dash, (2010). 'Prokaryotes '. In: Susan watts and Joan Staniswalis (ed), Organismal Biology. 1st ed. e.g. England: Kendall Hunt . pp.(13-45).…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prokaryotic cells are single celled organisms that were formed at the formation of the earth, so are the most basic life forms. The prokaryotes are organised in the ‘three domain system’ and include bacteria and blue-green algae. Prokaryotes live in many environments including extreme habitats such as hydrothermal vents, hot springs, swamps, wetlands, and the guts of animals.…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Endosymbiont Theory

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Present day prokaryotes are similar to fossil prokaryotes, some of which are 3500 million years old. By comparison, the earliest eukaryote cells date back only 1000 million years. Thus eukaryotes must have evolved, surrounded by prokaryotes that were long-established organisms. It is possible that, in the evolution of the eukaryotic cell, prokaryotic cells came to survive as organelles instead. If so, with time they would have become integrated into the biochemistry of their host cell. This concept is known as the endosymbiotic origin of eukaryotes.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All living organisms are composed of one or more cells, and like any living organism, cells are made up of smaller structures that help them function. In the context of cells, these smaller structures are referred to as organelles and each organelle has its own unique function that has developed over time. While we are typically aware of how these organelles function, how they evolved raises several questions. The main model for how eukaryotic cells evolved over time is the endosymbiont theory. This theory proposes that the organelles distinguishing eukaryote cells, evolved through symbiosis of single-celled prokaryotes.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    * Paustian, T. (2009). The major differences between Archaea and other domains of life. Retrieved from http://www.microbiologytext.com/index.php?module=Book&func=displayarticle&art_id=73…

    • 3542 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    a) Prokaryotes and eukaryotes are two types of cells that are very different but share some certain properties such as methods of reproduction, protein synthesis, an organized metabolism, response to stimuli, and plasma membranes. One significant difference is that prokaryotes are without a cell nucleus and eukaryotes are cells with a membrane bound nucleus Prokaryotic falls in two taxa characteristic of organism: domain archaea and domain bacteria; however prokaryotic itself is not a taxon. Prokaryotes does not have a membrane surrounding its genetic material (DNA) they make proteins simultaneously to read their genetic code. Eukaryotes have a membrane called a nuclear envelope surrounding their DNA, forming a nucleus. Electron microscopy has revealed that prokaryotes typically lack various types of internal structures bound with phospholipids membranes that are present in eukaryotic cells. Prokaryotes cells are not found in human and eukaryotic cells are. Prokaryotic cells reproduce and divide by binary fission and eukaryotic cells reduce and divide by mitosis and meiosis.…

    • 2134 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Archaea Persuasive Essay

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    To group all living organisms into two groups, Prokaryotic or Eukaryotic was inaccurate. Archaea, the third domain of life was a lineage that included prominent genetically differentiated microbes from the other two existing domains. Woese concluded at the end of his research that Archaea had originated from a different stem of the UA (Universal Ancestor) that every living organism evolved from. What was previously known before being categorized as Archaea were thought to have only thrived in extremely harsh environments.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells are both vital to our world today. Prokaryotic cells are simple, yet the oldest, and were known to evolve around 3.5 billion year ago. Eukaryotic cells are more complex and have been said to appear on Earth 2.5 billion years ago. It is sort of like people or characters in movies. You see them one year and basically understand what they’re doing or going through and then a year or two from now they seem like they become more complicated to understand. That’s just what happened to the eukaryotic cell as it became more difficult than prokaryotic. Before I tell you about the endosymbiotic theory, let me give you a little background on it. It was proposed by a Boston biologist in the 1960s of a woman by the name…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Endosymbiotic Theory

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In this theory, the first eukaryotic cell was probably an amoeba-like nucleated (probably DNA in a nucleoid region not an actual nucleus) prokaryotic cell that got nutrients by phagocytosis (engulfing nutrients or other cells) Some of these unicellular amoeba-like organisms engulfed prokaryotic cells that somehow were not digested within the organism. In the process of being engulfed the smaller cells would have been wrapped in membrane from the larger cell, today we see double membranes in mitochondria and chloroplasts. The symbiotic relationship was beneficial because the host cell would have provided essential nutrients to the engulfed prokaryotic cell in exchange the smaller prokaryotic cell used these nutrients to synthesize ATP molecules, this ATP was used as an energy source by the host cell. The smaller prokaryotic cell was given a safe environment as well as receiving nutrients from the…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    3. There are three domains of life: Bacteria (also known as Eubacteria), Archaea, and Eukarya. The Bacteria and Archaea are made up entirely of microorganisms; the Eukarya contains plants, animals, and microorganisms such as fungi and protists. The Bacteria and Archaea have been grouped together and called Prokaryotes because of their lack of a nucleus, but the Archaea are more closely related to the Eukaryotes than to the Bacteria. The cell wall of bacteria contains peptidoglycan, while, Eukarya and Archaea do not contain peptidoglycan.…

    • 186 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abiogenisis

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The early earth was a very hostile environment, essentially beginning around 4.6 billion years ago. Some of the earliest known rock can be dated back to this time. Skip ahead about .8 billion years and the first prokaryotes, the bacteria and archea, were beginning a long journey that would mark the beginning of life on planet earth. But we ask ourselves, how did this all begin; what is the fundamental necessary components of life, when and how did this happen? Scientists have put together a strong idea of how this happened. Cells need 4 basic things to be considered alive, a membrane structure, genetic material, the ability to replicate this material, and a metabolism. We have solved 3 out of the four basic needs and can call this “cell” a protocell. The membrane of a protocell consists of fatty acids and is very stable, the genetic material is RNA and replication takes place one of two ways; with heat that denatures the RNA or with an enzyme called a ribozyme.…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays