Av. Pinevich, MEMBRANE SYSTEM PATTERN AS APPLIED TO CYTOLOGICAL CONCEPTUALISM - IS THE PROKARYOTE EUKARYOTE DICHOTOMY TO BE REJECTED, Endocytobiosis and cell research, 10(3), 1994, pp. 159-166
The evolutionary tree reconstructed from the molecular palaeontology d
ata conflicts with global phenetic dichotomy: the orthodox interpretat
ion of rRNAs sequences similarity (Stackebrandt and Woese, 1981) argue
s for an early divergence of Bacteria, Archaea (both prokaryotic), and
Eucarya domains, even though a preferable relatedness issues from cor
rected estimations of the initial branching order (Wheelis et al., 199
2). Besides, to formulate the prokaryote/eukaryote distinction, a cata
logue of structure-functional characteristics of anucleate/nucleate ce
lls is needed that substitutes for a conceptual definition (Cavalier-S
mith, 1981). To overcome these restrictions, a novel subdivision of ce
ll morphotypes into the archaeal unimembrane, eucaryal bimembrane, and
bacterial trimembrane ones is put forward. This substitute for the pr
okaryote/eukaryote concept generally agrees with the currently estimat
ed phylogeny and accentuates a role of the membrane system pattern in
natural classification.