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Prokaryotic and eukaryotic chromosomes: what's the difference?
Author(s) -
Bendich Arnold J.,
Drlica Karl
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-1878(200005)22:5<481::aid-bies10>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - eukaryote , biology , prokaryote , eukaryotic chromosome fine structure , nucleoid , genetics , nucleosome , phylogenetic tree , evolutionary biology , dna , ploidy , genome , telomere , gene , chromatin , escherichia coli
It is widely held that the profound differences in cellular architecture between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, in particular the housing of eukaryotic chromosomes within a nuclear membrane, also extends to the properties of their chromosomes. When chromosomal multiplicity, ploidy, linearity, transcriptional silencing, partitioning, and packaging are considered, no consistent association is found between any of these properties and the presence or absence of a nuclear membrane. Some of the perceived differences can be attributed to cytological limitations imposed by the small size of bacterial nucleoids and the arbitrary choice of representative organisms for comparison. We suggest that the criterion of nucleosome‐based packaging of chromosomal DNA may be more useful than the prokaryote/eukaryote dichotomy for inferring the broadest phylogenetic relationships among organisms. BioEssays 22:481—486, 2000. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.