Abstract
Cellularization of a precellular ancestral condition of life must have occured separately for each of the three domains of life resulting in a protoarchaeon, a protobacterium and a protocaryon. Accordingly, a ‘first cell’, ancestral to the three domains of life has never existed. This statement is based on a retrospective evaluation of the distribution patterns of membrane lipids and of cell wall polymers with their different chemical nature and modes of biosynthesis in a global phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA sequence comparison.
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Dedicated to Professor Peter Sitte on the occasion of his 65th birthday.
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Kandler, O. Cell wall biochemistry in Archaea and its phylogenetic implications. J Biol Phys 20, 165–169 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00700433
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00700433