A Billion Years Before Sex, Ancient Cells Were Equipped for It | Quanta Magazine
Molecular detective work is zeroing in on the origins of sexual reproduction. The protein tools for cell mergers seem to have long predated sex — so what were they doing?
Hasnain says:
I am a terribly inexperienced noob when it comes to biology so this took me a while to get through (lots of jargon I wasn’t familiar with) - but this was really interesting and educational!
“Another place to look is the enigmatic Asgard lineage of archaea, which were described only a few years ago and are thought to be the closest relatives of eukaryotes. They may be able to provide some resolution to the question of how cell fusion and other processes came together to create sex, ushering in the vibrant, bustling tangle of eukaryotic life.”
Posted on 2022-02-17T07:32:21+0000