∞ generated and posted on 2016.01.15 ∞
Name of domain of prokaryotic organisms that have unusual membrane lipids and lack peptidoglycan.
Archaea prominently contrast with members of domain Bacteria, which represent the other prokaryotic domain, and in many ways Archaea are more similar to eukaryotes (domain Eukarya) than they are to those other prokaryotes. See also domain Archaea.
The Archaea are characterized by several distinguishing traits, including the incorporation of lipids with a , and they are the only known to carry out to produce biological … However, the Archaea share traits with both the Bacteria and the : they have information processing systems (for example, for DNA replication, transcription and translation) in common with the Eukarya and metabolism in common with the Bacteria.
Among archaea are numerous extremophiles such as extreme halophiles and . Archaea, however, are by no means limited in their distribution to extreme environments.
The Archaea are predominantly differentiated into two major taxa, the Crenarchaeota and the Euryarchaeota, though other similarly higher-level taxa have been proposed (, , ). See also archaeon but contrast with archaean.
From :
Although Archaea have long been thought to be primarily extremophiles, of environmental samples has revealed that they are much more widespread and occur commonly in and , in , , , , plant roots, and even the and gut .
See also archaeon, archaeal, , and .