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EUKARYOTIC ORIGINS

Closing the energetics gap

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A modelling study suggests that the proposed energetic barrier between prokaryotes and eukaryotes may not be relevant to the complexity gap between the two domains. The energetic advantage of early mitochondria was probably small, and eukaryotes likely emerged without the help of an endosymbiont.

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Fig. 1: The gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

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  1. Institute of Evolution, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary

    István Zachar

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  1. István Zachar
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Correspondence to István Zachar.

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Zachar, I. Closing the energetics gap. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 1254–1255 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01839-3

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