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Figure 5 | Biology Direct

Figure 5

From: The origin of a derived superkingdom: how a gram-positive bacterium crossed the desert to become an archaeon

Figure 5

Summary of our hypothesis. A viral endosymbiosis bridges the gap in DNA machinery between the superkingdoms. That triggered an antibiotic war that resulted in the birth of eukaryotes and archaea. The antibiotic war ended when archaea became extremophiles and the eukaryotes became phagotrophs. Traits shared between eukaryotes and actinobacteria are the result of endosymbiosis; the peroxisome is not the direct descendent of an actinobacterium.

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