Evolutionary success of prokaryotes

J.C. Bertrand (1) , P. Bonin (2) , Bernard Ollivier (2) , K. Alain (3) , A. Godfroy (3) , Nathalie Pradel (2) , P. Normand (4)

1 OSU PYTHEAS - Institut Pythéas
2 MIO - Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie
3 LM2E - Laboratoire de Microbiologie des Environnements Extrêmophiles
4 LEM - Laboratoire d'Ecologie Microbienne - UMR 5557

How can the evolutionary success of prokaryotes be explained ? How did they manage to survive conditions that have fluctuated, with drastic events over 3.5 billion years ? Which significant metabolisms and mechanisms have appeared over the course of evolution that have permitted them to survive the most inhospitable conditions from the physicochemical point of view ? In a 'Red Queen Race', prokaryotes have always run sufficiently fast to adapt to constraints imposed by the environment and the other living species with which they have established interactions. If the criterion retained to define the level of evolution of an organism is its capacity to survive and to yield the largest number of offsprings, prokaryotes must be considered highly evolved organisms.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Biologie cellulaire; Biodiversité et Ecologie

J.C. Bertrand, P. Bonin, Bernard Ollivier, K. Alain, A. Godfroy, et al.. Evolutionary success of prokaryotes. Bertrand, J.C. (ed.); Normand, P. (ed.); Ollivier, Bernard (ed.); Sime-Ngando, T. (ed.). Prokaryotes and evolution, Springer, pp.131-240, 2018, 978-3-319-99782-7. ⟨10.1007/978-3-319-99784-1_4⟩. ⟨hal-02328653⟩