the.com/eukaryote
Life that filed its DNA in a nucleus instead of leaving it lying around.
means An organism whose cells have a membrane-bound nucleus and other internal compartments, as opposed to prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea), which lack them.
from From Greek eu- 'good, true, well' plus karyon 'kernel, nut' — the same karyon that gives us 'karyotype.' Biologists coined 'eukaryote' in the late 19th/early 20th century to mean 'truly nucleated,' naming the cell by its defining feature: a proper, membrane-wrapped kernel holding the genetic material, unlike the more diffuse arrangement in prokaryotes ('pro-' meaning before, as if nucleated-ness hadn't quite arrived yet).
- origin
- once a bacterium swallowed another and kept it as staff
- includes
- you, mushrooms, amoebas, and seaweed, oddly related
- excludes
- bacteria and archaea, the nucleus-free minimalists
- mitochondria
- former bacteria, still running their own tiny genome