Summary
The eukaryote’s debut transformed the planet. All complex multicellular life — indeed, all life that any of us regularly see — is made of eukarian cells.
The first eukaryotic cell evolved from a bacterial cell 2 billion years ago. That bacterium evolved to become the organelle we now know as the mitochondrion. Eukaryotes have evolved or procured additional organelles that assemble proteins, store water, get rid of waste.
The first eukaryote engulfed a cyanobacterium capable of photosynthesis. Eukaryotes have since spread across the world, breaking out of primordial pools.
Ettema went looking for that mysterious first host cell in a field of sulfide chimneys. Underwater vents are good candidates for the nursery of that original cell.
Asgards are thought to be the closest prokaryotic relatives of eukaryotes. Modern Asgards aren’t our ancestors, but we likely share an ancestor somewhere in deep time.
The eukaryotic genome is a Frankenstein mashup of genes originating from archaea and bacteria. Researchers debate whether the mitochondrial bacterium, likely from a diverse and ancient class known as alphaproteobacteria, was even the first endosymbiont.
