All modern multicellular life — all life that any of us regularly see — is made of cells with a knack for compartmentalization. Recent discoveries are revealing how the first eukaryote got its start.

The sun has just set on a quiet mudflat in Australia's Northern Territory; it'll set again in another 19 hours. A young moon looms large over the desolate landscape. No animals scurry in the waning ...

What separates animals, plants, fungi and even amoebas from bacteria? Well, there's one feature that no longer universally makes us distinct, thanks to a new study that redefines what it means to ...

In a new study, published in Cell, researchers describe a newfound mechanism for creating proteins in a giant DNA virus, comparable to a mechanism in eukaryotic cells. The finding challenges the dogma ...

Deep in hydrothermal vents beneath the Arctic Ocean, scientists have discovered an organism that sheds fresh light on the evolutionary link between simple and complex cellular life. The microbe and ...

In a significant breakthrough for biological engineering, scientists have created an artificial eukaryote chromosome and inserted it into living brewer’s yeast cells (Science 2014, DOI: ...

Mitochondria are membrane-bound components within cells that are often described as the cells' powerhouses. They've long been considered as essential components for life in eukaryotes, the group ...