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Article: Archaea
- Article from:
- World of Microbiology and Immunology
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Archaea
Genes that code for vital cellular functions are highly conserved through evolutionary time, and because even these genes experience random changes over time, the comparison of such genes allows the relatedness of different organisms to be assessed. American microbiologist Carl Woese and his colleagues obtained sequences of the genes coding for
RNA
in the subunit of the ribosome from different organisms to argue that life on Earth is comprised of three primary groups, or domains. These domains are the Eukarya (which include humans),
Bacteria
, and Archaea.
While Archae are
microorganisms
, they are no more related to bacteria than to
eukaryotes
. They share some traits ...