Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

2011 Edition
| Editors: Muriel Gargaud, Ricardo Amils, José Cernicharo Quintanilla, Henderson James (Jim) CleavesII, William M. Irvine, Daniele L. Pinti, Michel Viso

Unicellular Organisms

Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_1628

Definition

A unicellular organism is any life form that consists of just a single  cell. Most forms of life are unicellular. They can be found in the three domains of life,  Bacteria,  Archaea and  Eukarya, although most  prokaryotes are unicellular organisms. Unicellular organisms are ubiquitous; they can be found in many different types of environments. The oldest forms of life were unicellular.  Multicellular organisms appeared later in the fossil record, and some authors correlate their appearance with an increase in oxygen, a byproduct of  oxygenic photosynthesis, in the atmosphere.

See also

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Departamento de Biologia MolecularUniversidad Autónoma de Madrid Campus CantoblancoMadridSpain