The nature of the last universal ancestor and the root of the tree of life, still open questions

1992/01/01 by Patrick Forterre, Nadia Benachenhou-Lahfa, Fabrice Confalonieri +3 · 71 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Abiogenesis #Ancestor #Biology #Evolutionary biology #Gene #Genetics #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Geography #Most recent common ancestor #Phylogenetic tree #Prokaryote #Protist diversity and phylogeny #RNA #RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms #RNA world hypothesis #Ribozyme #Tree of life (biology)

paper · doi:10.1016/0303-2647(92)90004-i

published in Biosystems 28(1-3), 15-32 (Elsevier BV)

crossref issued 1992/01/01 · crossref published 1992/01/01 · crossref published-print 1992/01/01 · openalex publication_date 1992/01/01 · crossref created 2003/10/24 · crossref deposited 2020/03/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2025/11/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22

Citations

• Self-splicing introns in tRNA genes of widely divergent bacteria
• Comparative biochemistry of Archaea and Bacteria
• Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms
• Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya.
• Bacterial evolution.

Cited by

• Were the first organisms heat engines? A new model for biogenesis and the early evolution of biological energy conversion
• History of life [wikipedia]