The concept of a bacterium

Stanier, Roger Y.; Niel, Cécile

doi:10.1007/bf00425185

Cited by 350 publications

(163 citation statements)

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“…The first comprehensive molecular phylogenies including macro-and microorganisms were reconstructed by Woese and Fox [7] in the late 1970s. At that time, the general idea was that life could be divided into two major groups according to basic characteristics of the cellular organization: prokaryotes (a synonym of bacteria) and eukaryotes [8]. However, instead of the expected separation between these two groups, Woese's molecular phylogenetic trees showed the deep divergence of three lineages [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of viruses and cells: do we need a fourth domain of life to explain the origin of eukaryotes?

Moreira¹,

López‐García²

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The recent discovery of diverse very large viruses, such as the mimivirus, has fostered a profusion of hypotheses positing that these viruses define a new domain of life together with the three cellular ones (Archaea, Bacteria and Eucarya). It has also been speculated that they have played a key role in the origin of eukaryotes as donors of important genes or even as the structures at the origin of the nucleus. Thanks to the increasing availability of genome sequences for these giant viruses, those hypotheses are amenable to testing via comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses. This task is made very difficult by the high evolutionary rate of viruses, which induces phylogenetic artefacts, such as long branch attraction, when inadequate methods are applied. It can be demonstrated that phylogenetic trees supporting viruses as a fourth domain of life are artefactual. In most cases, the presence of homologues of cellular genes in viruses is best explained by recurrent horizontal gene transfer from cellular hosts to their infecting viruses and not the opposite. Today, there is no solid evidence for the existence of a viral domain of life or for a significant implication of viruses in the origin of the cellular domains.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of viruses and cells: do we need a fourth domain of life to explain the origin of eukaryotes?

Moreira¹,

López‐García²

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…The most profound difference within the living world lies between bacteria and eukaryotes (Stanier & Van Niel, 1962 ;Stanier, 1970 ;Cavalier-Smith, 1987b, 1991a. ' Bacteria ' in this paper is used in the Eubacterial origins of life and of Archaebacteria proper traditional sense to embrace all prokaryotes (Cavalier-Smith, 1992bMayr, 1998), never as a fashionable but highly confusing synonym for eubacteria only (Woese et al, 1990).…”

Section: Introduction and Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Organismal structural diversity, on the other hand, arises through variations in membrane topology and physico-chemical properties as well as in the shapes formed by the cell skeleton, for both of which the genically specified catalysts create the building blocks. This means that we cannot understand the evolution of life without elucidating the evolution of cell organization and reproduction as well as that of the individual molecules that mediate them.The most profound difference within the living world lies between bacteria and eukaryotes (Stanier & Van Niel, 1962 ;Stanier, 1970 ;Cavalier-Smith, 1987b, 1991a. ' Bacteria ' in this paper is used in the Eubacterial origins of life and of Archaebacteria proper traditional sense to embrace all prokaryotes (Cavalier-Smith, 1992bMayr, 1998), never as a fashionable but highly confusing synonym for eubacteria only (Woese et al, 1990).…”

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confidence: 99%

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The neomuran origin of archaebacteria, the negibacterial root of the universal tree and bacterial megaclassification.

Cavalier‐Smith¹

2002

International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

418

590

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Prokaryotes constitute a single kingdom, Bacteria, here divided into two new subkingdoms : Negibacteria, with a cell envelope of two distinct genetic membranes, and Unibacteria, comprising the new phyla Archaebacteria and Posibacteria, with only one. Other new bacterial taxa are established in a revised higher-level classification that recognizes only eight phyla and 29 classes. Morphological, palaeontological and molecular data are integrated into a unified picture of large-scale bacterial cell evolution despite occasional lateral gene transfers. Archaebacteria and eukaryotes comprise the clade neomura, with many common characters, notably obligately co-translational secretion of N-linked glycoproteins, signal recognition particle with 7S RNA and translationarrest domain, protein-spliced tRNA introns, eight-subunit chaperonin, prefoldin, core histones, small nucleolar ribonucleoproteins (snoRNPs), exosomes and similar replication, repair, transcription and translation machinery. Eubacteria (posibacteria and negibacteria) are paraphyletic, neomura having arisen from Posibacteria within the new subphylum Actinobacteria (possibly from the new class Arabobacteria, from which eukaryotic cholesterol biosynthesis probably came). Replacement of eubacterial peptidoglycan by glycoproteins and adaptation to thermophily are the keys to neomuran origins. All 19 common neomuran character suites probably arose essentially simultaneously during the radical modification of an actinobacterium. At least 11 were arguably adaptations to thermophily. Most unique archaebacterial characters (prenyl ether lipids ; flagellar shaft of glycoprotein, not flagellin ; DNA-binding protein 10b ; specially modified tRNA ; absence of Hsp90) were subsequent secondary adaptations to hyperthermophily and/or hyperacidity. The insertional origin of protein-spliced tRNA introns and an insertion in proton-pumping ATPase also support the origin of neomura from eubacteria. Molecular co-evolution between histones and DNA-handling proteins, and in novel protein initiation and secretion machineries, caused quantum evolutionary shifts in their properties in stem neomura. Proteasomes probably arose in the immediate common ancestor of neomura and Actinobacteria. Major gene losses (e.g. peptidoglycan synthesis, hsp90, secA) and genomic reduction were central to the origin of archaebacteria. Ancestral archaebacteria were probably heterotrophic, anaerobic, sulphur-dependent hyperthermoacidophiles ; methanogenesis and halophily are secondarily derived. Multiple lateral gene transfers from eubacteria helped secondary archaebacterial adaptations to mesophily and genome re-expansion. The origin from a drastically altered actinobacterium of neomura, and the immediately subsequent simultaneous origins of archaebacteria and eukaryotes, are the most extreme and important cases of T. Cavalier-Smith quantum evolution since cells began. All three strikingly exemplify De Beer's principle of mosaic evolution : the fact that, during major evolutionary transformations, some org...

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“…The largest evolutionary discontinuity among contemporary organisms lies at the cellular level; it permits us to distinguish two biological superkingdoms, eukaryotes and prokaryotes (46,43). The recognition of this fact is quite recent, since the differences between the eukaryotic and the prokaryotic cell could not be rigorously formulated prior to 1960.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The position of cyanobacteria in the world of phototrophs

Stanier

1977

Carlsberg Res. Commun.

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Recent advances in our knowledge of the biological properties of the cyanobacteria (former ,blue-green algae,) are reviewed. The subjects discussed include: cyanobacterial cell structure and development; comparative aspects of photosyntetic structure and function in prokaryotes; carbon metabolism and its relation to obligate photoautotrophy; and special properties of cyanobacteria that are of ecological significance (temperature relationships, nitrogen fixation and facultative anoxygenic photosynthesis).

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The concept of a bacterium

Cited by 350 publications

References 58 publications

Evolution of viruses and cells: do we need a fourth domain of life to explain the origin of eukaryotes?

Evolution of viruses and cells: do we need a fourth domain of life to explain the origin of eukaryotes?

The neomuran origin of archaebacteria, the negibacterial root of the universal tree and bacterial megaclassification.

The position of cyanobacteria in the world of phototrophs

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