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The three-domain system adds a level of classification (the domains) "above" the kingdoms present in the previously used five- or six-kingdom systems.This classification system recognizes the fundamental divide between the two prokaryotic groups, insofar as Archaea appear to be more closely related to eukaryotes than they are to other prokaryotes – bacteria-like organisms with no cell nucleus.
According to the domain system, the tree of life consists of either three domains, Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya, [1] or two domains, Archaea and Bacteria, with Eukarya included in Archaea. [3] [4] In the three-domain model, the first two are prokaryotes, single-celled microorganisms without a membrane-bound nucleus.
In 1990, a novel concept of the tree of life was presented, dividing the living world into three stems, classified as the domains Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya. [1] [50] [51] [52] It is the first tree founded exclusively on molecular phylogenetics, and which includes the evolution of microorganisms.
In 1977, Carl Woese and colleagues proposed the fundamental subdivision of the prokaryotes into the Eubacteria (later called the Bacteria) and Archaebacteria (later called the Archaea), based on ribosomal RNA structure; [15] this would later lead to the proposal of three "domains" of life, of Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota. [5]
Presently, scientists classify all life into just three domains, Eukaryotes, Bacteria and Archaea. [2] Bacterial taxonomy is the classification of strains within the domain Bacteria into hierarchies of similarity. This classification is similar to that of plants, mammals, and other taxonomies. However, biologists specializing in different areas ...
These two domains, along with Eukarya, are the basis of the three-domain system, which is currently the most widely used classification system in microbiology. [173] However, due to the relatively recent introduction of molecular systematics and a rapid increase in the number of genome sequences that are available, bacterial classification ...
Because microorganisms include most unicellular organisms from all three domains of life, they can be extremely diverse. Two of the three domains, Archaea and Bacteria, only contain microorganisms. The third domain, Eukaryota, includes all multicellular organisms as well as many unicellular protists and protozoans that are microbes.
The three main early branches of the tree of life have been intensively studied by microbiologists because the first organisms were microorganisms. Microbiologists (led by Carl Woese) have introduced the term domain for the three main branches of this tree, where domain is a phylogenetic term similar in meaning to biological kingdom.