In microbiology, microorganisms may be named after well-known scientific personalities to honor them. Such eponyms are common in the natural sciences, such as pasteurization (after the microbiologist ...

Prokaryotes are the group of organisms including bacteria and archaea that do not have a membrane-bound nucleus and instead have a circular, double-stranded molecule of DNA called a nucleoid, that is ...

Every living organism falls into one of two groups: eukaryotes or prokaryotes, with cellular structure determining which group an organism belongs to. Prokaryotes are unicellular and lack a nucleus ...

Flagella are primarily used for cell movement and are found in prokaryotes as well as some eukaryotes. The prokaryotic flagellum spins, creating forward movement by a corkscrew shaped filament. A ...

Why have bacteria never evolved complex multicellularity? A new hypothesis suggests that it could come down to how prokaryotic genomes respond to a small population size. Every organism visible to the ...

Eukaryotes—fungi, plants, us—are complex. Our large cells are characterized by their different compartments, many of which are neatly enclosed within a boundary of membrane. These compartments contain ...

Prokaryotic single-celled organisms, the ancestors of modern-day bacteria and archaea, are the most ancient form of life on our planet, first appearing roughly 3.5 billion years ago. The first ...

Deep in hydrothermal vents beneath the Arctic Ocean, scientists have discovered an organism that sheds fresh light on the evolutionary link between simple and complex cellular life. The microbe and ...

Modern eukaryotic cells have proteins that enable chromosome segregation during cell division, new discoveries shed light on their origin in simpler prokaryotic organisms. Modern nucleated (eukaryotic ...