LUCA to LECA, the Lucacene: A model for the gigayear delay from the first prokaryote to eukaryogenesis.

Abstract excerpt

It is puzzling why life on Earth consisted of prokaryotes for up to 2.5 ± 0.5 billion years (Gy) before the appearance of the first eukaryotes. This period, from LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) to LECA (Last Eucaryotic Common Ancestor), we have named the Lucacene, to suggest all prokaryotic descendants of LUCA before the appearance of LECA. Here we present a simple model based on horizontal gene transfer...

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