Hypotheses on the origin of eukaryotic cells must account for the origin of the microtubular cytoskeletal structures (including the mitotic spindle, undulipodium/cilium (so-called flagellum) and other structures underlain by the 9(2)+2 microtubular axoneme) in addition to the membrane-bounded nucleus. Whereas bacteria with membrane-bounded nucleoids have been described, no precedent for mitotic, cytoskeletal, or axonemal microtubular structures are known in prokaryotes. Molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that the cells of the earliest-branching lineages of eukaryotes contain the karyomastigont cytoskeletal system. These protist cells divide via an extranuclear spindle and a persistent nuclear membrane. We suggest that this association between the centriole/kinetosome axoneme (undulipodium) and the nucleus existed from the earliest stage of eukaryotic cell evolution. We interpret the karyomastigont to be a legacy of the symbiosis between thermoacidophilic archaebacteria and motile eubacteria from which the first eukaryote evolved. Mutually inconsistent hypotheses for the origin of the nucleus are reviewed and sequenced proteins of cell motility are discussed because of their potential value in resolving this problem. A correlation of fossil evidence with modern cell and microbiological studies leads us to the karyomastigont theory of the origin of the nucleus.
Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.