This book chapter argues for an open-access catalogue of taxonomic descriptions with
prototypes; diagnostic tables; and links to culture collections, to genome and gene …

Viruses are ubiquitous. They infect almost every species and are probably the most
abundant biological entities on the planet, yet they are excluded from the Tree of Life (ToL) …

With the continuously accelerating genome sequencing from diverse groups of archaea and
bacteria, accurate identification of gene orthology and availability of readily expandable …

The wide spread of gene exchange and loss in the prokaryotic world has prompted the
concept of 'lateral genomics' to the point of an outright denial of the relevance of …

Prokaryote genomics started in earnest in 1995, with the complete sequences of two small
bacterial genomes, those of Haemophilus influenzae and Mycoplasma genitalium. During …

Biologists used to draw schematic “universal” trees of life as metaphors illustrating the
history of life. It is indeed a priori possible to construct an organismal tree connecting the …

The numerous and diverse eukaryotic viruses with large double-stranded DNA genomes
that at least partially reproduce in the cytoplasm of infected cells apparently evolved from a …

Electron cryotomography (ECT) enables the 3D reconstruction of intact cells in a near-native
state. Images produced by ECT have led to the proposal that an ancient sporulation-like …

Analyses of genome sequences, by some approaches, suggest that the widespread
occurrence of horizontal gene transfers (HGTs) in prokaryotes disguises their evolutionary …

The traditional tree of life from molecular biology with last universal common ancestor
(LUCA) branching into bacteria and archaea (though fuzzy) is likely formally valid enough to …