Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various prokaryotic microorganisms of the domain Archaea, being genetically distinct from bacteria and often living in habitats with extreme environmental conditions such as high temperature or salinity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A microorganism, physically resembling a bacterium, of the kingdom Archaea.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Archaeon (back-formed singular of Archaea, domain name), from Greek arkhaion, neuter singular of arkhaios, ancient (in reference to the very ancient separation of the archaea and the eubacteria in evolutionary history); see archaic.]

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Examples

  • Jarrell 2007 Systematic deletion analyses of the fla genes in the flagella operon identify several genes essential for proper assembly and function of flagella in the archaeon, Methanococcus maripaludis.

    Flagellum evolution -- how's your German? - The Panda's Thumb 2010

  • What's interesting about this study is that it challenges a widely held hypothesis that Eucarya arose out of the fusion of a bacterium with an archaeon (also known as the endosymbiotic origin of the nucleus, not to be confused with the endosymbiotic origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts).

    Another Big Example of Reductive Evolution? 2006

  • The hypothetical fusion of an archaeon and a bacterium explains nothing about the special features of the modern eukaryote cell, nor the many signature proteins.

    Another Big Example of Reductive Evolution? 2006

  • I seem to remember that you have previously been very critical of the traditional endosymbiotic hypothesis for the origin of the nucleus (where the nucleus arose from an archaeon engulfed by a bacterium).

    Albert de Roos: A design hypothesis for the evolution of the nucleus 2006

  • A heat-loving archaeon capable of fixing nitrogen at a surprisingly hot 92 degrees Celsius, or 198 Fahrenheit, may represent Earth's earliest lineages of organisms capable of nitrogen fixation, perhaps even preceding the kinds of bacteria today's plants and animals rely on to fix nitrogen.

    Seeing dark matter, and other odd science 2006

  • I seem to remember that you have previously been very critical of the traditional endosymbiotic hypothesis for the origin of the nucleus (where the nucleus arose from an archaeon engulfed by a bacterium).

    Albert de Roos: A design hypothesis for the evolution of the nucleus 2006

  • The halophilic salt-loving archaeon Haloquadratum walsbyi is, of course, both.

    Archive 2006-11-01 AYDIN 2006

  • The genome of the square archaeon Haloquadratum walsbyi : life at the limits of water activity.

    Archive 2006-11-01 AYDIN 2006

  • While the eukaryotic complex consists of six homologous proteins (MCM2-7), the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus has only one MCM protein

    BioMed Central - Latest articles Aaron Brewster 2010

  • While the eukaryotic complex consists of six homologous proteins (MCM2-7), the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus has only one MCM protein

    BioMed Central - Latest articles 2010

  • A lot of evidence points to the fact that the host cell was a simple bacterium-like cell called an archaeon.

    Yes, Life in the Fast Lane Kills You - Nautilus - Pocket Philip Ball 2023

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