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Concept
Eukaryote
Summary
The eukaryotes constitute the domain of Eukaryota (juːˈkærioʊts,_-əts), organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms are eukaryotes. They constitute a major group of life forms, alongside the two groups of prokaryotes, the Bacteria and the Archaea. Eukaryotes represent a small minority of the number of organisms, but due to their generally much larger size, their collective global biomass is much larger than that of prokaryotes.
The eukaryotes seemingly emerged in the Archaea, within the Asgard archaea. This implies that there are only two domains of life, Bacteria and Archaea, with eukaryotes incorporated among the Archaea. Eukaryotes emerged approximately 2.2 billion years ago, during the Proterozoic eon, likely as flagellated cells. These were created by symbiogenesis between an anaerobic Asgard archaean and an aerobic proteobacterium, which formed the mitochondria. A second episode of symbiogenesis with a cyanobacterium created the plants, with chloroplasts. The oldest-known eukaryote fossils, multicellular planktonic organisms belonging to the Gabonionta, were discovered in Gabon in 2023, dating back to 2.1 billion years ago.
Eukaryotic cells contain membrane-bound organelles such as the nucleus, the endoplasmic reticulum, and the Golgi apparatus. Eukaryotes may be either unicellular or multicellular. In comparison, prokaryotes are typically unicellular. Unicellular eukaryotes are sometimes called protists. Eukaryotes can reproduce both asexually through mitosis and sexually through meiosis and gamete fusion (fertilisation).
Eukaryotes are organisms that range from microscopic single cells, such as picozoans under 3 micrometres across, to animals like the blue whale, weighing up to 190 tonnes and measuring up to long, or plants like the coast redwood, up to tall. Many eukaryotes are unicellular; the informal grouping called protists includes many of these, with some multicellular forms like the giant kelp up to long.
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