A Natural System of Organisms Considerations Would Be As Follows: SIR-For a Remarkably Long Time After Proposed by Woese Et Al
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SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE system that has been in use for so many years. A classification based on these A natural system of organisms considerations would be as follows: SIR-For a remarkably long time after proposed by Woese et al .. one could adopt Domain Prokaryota (Monera) the publication of Linnaeus's Systema a division of the organic world into two Subdomain Eubacteria Naturae ( 1758) only two branches of great domains, the Prokaryota (Monera) Subdomain Archaebacteria systematics were generally recognized: and the Eukaryota. Kingdom Crenarchaeota zoology and botany. Fungi and even The specialists of the Prokaryota will Kingdom Euryarchaeota bacteria were traditionally looked after by have to decide what rank (category) Domain Eukaryota botanists and studied in botany depart to choose for the Archacbacteria and Subdomain Protista ments. In due time, primarily because of Eubacteria, either subdomain or king Subdomain Metabionta their medical importance. the bacteria dom. Ranking them as subdomains would Kingdom Metaphyta (plants) were recognized as different from higher permit ranking the two divisions of the Kingdom Fungi organisms and eventually it was realized Archaebacteria as the kingdoms Cren Kingdom Metazoa (animals) that the fungi had nothing particularly in archaeota and Euryarchaeota. As far as ERNST MAYR common with the plants. Making use of the domain of the Eukaryota is con Museum of Comparative Zoology, these insights, Whittaker' suggested cerned, instead of recognizing the custom Harvard University, recognizing five kingdoms of organisms ary four kingdoms, it might be advisable Cambridge, (Animalia, Plantac, Fungi. Protista and to recognize two subdomains on the basis Massachusetts 02138, USA Monera) and this proposal was widely of grade of organization, the largely adopted. unicellular Protista and the multi 1 Whittaker. R.H. Q. Rev. 810/. 34. 210-226 (1959). 2 Woese. C.R .. Kandler, 0. & Wheelis. M.L. Proc. natn. In an article published in June, Woese et cellular "Metabionta', containing the Fungi, Acad. Sci. US.A 87. 4576-4579 (1990). 2 al. correctly pointed out that a system Mctaphyta and Mctazoa. 3. Chatton, E. Titres et Travaux Sc,entifique (1906-1937) de that assigns the same rank to five higher Everyone realizes that the Protista are Edouard Chatton (Sottano, Sete, 1938). 4. Hennig, W. PhylogeneticSystematics(trans. Davis, D.D. & taxa that differ from each other so un as heterogeneous a lot ( or more so) as Zangerl, R.) (Univ. Illinois Press, Urbana, 1966). evenly is highly unbalanced and therefore the three kingdoms of the Metabionta 5. Mayr. E. Verh. Dtsch. Zoo/. Ges. Stuttgart (in the press). unsatisfactory. Instead, they proposed to together. I have little doubt that the recognize three ·domains' of organisms, specialists will in due time break them up the Bacteria, the Archaea and the Euc into a considerable number of kingdoms, Ambidextrous RNA arya. Unfortunately, in this arrangement but by recognizing the subdomain Protista S1R-John Galloway, in his discussion in the previous imbalance is replaced by a one emphasizes that these organisms News and Views' of Brown and Wolpert's different one. The ranking in the classifi represent a definite evolutionary grade, a paper' on asymmetry in development, cation suggested by Woese et al. is based definite stage in the development of the states that molecular determinants are entirely on the amount of difference in derived multicellular Metabionta. Many unlikely to be involved. He points out that ribosomal RNA, ignoring the enormous of these protists combine characteristics the structure of individual proteins is evolutionary step from the prokaryotes to (such as mobility) traditionally ascribed to either right- or left-handed and that gene the eukaryotes. I would like to propose a animals, with other characteristics (such mutation could not readily produce a new classification of the living world based as photosynthesis) traditionally ascribed change in handedness, and also that the on that second consideration. to plants. Others have characteristics not primary structure of nucleic acids cannot The difference in structural organiza found in any of the multicellular taxa. be ambidextrous. tion between prokaryotes and eukaryotes Eventually, when molecular research is But if one considers the secondary is an order of magnitude greater than the further advanced, it will be possible to structure of nucleic acids it is easy to see relatively small difference between the determine exactly which of the protist that RNA molecules, or parts of such Archaebacteria and the Eubacteria. As genera or families gave rise to the higher molecules, could exist in left- or right important as the molecular distance animals and plants. handed forms. Simply hypothetical between Archaebacteria and Eubacteria There is considerable disagreement examples arc shown in the figure. The base may seem to a specialist. as far as their among taxonomists as to methodology sequence of the stem of the two molecules general organization is concerned. the two and theory of macrotaxonomy. Cladists is the same. and the sequence of the side kinds of prokaryotes are very much the favour Hennig's ·general reference sys same. By contrast, the series of evolution tems·'_ in which taxa that have given rise ary steps in cellular organization leading to descendants (ex-groups) arc broken up UG C U from the prokaryotes to the eukaryotes, and removed from the clnssification as A A U-A including the acquisition of a nucleus, a set being ·paraphyletic'. Cladists would prob G-C A-U C-G of chromosomes and the acquisition, pre ably not recognize those prokaryote taxa C-G C-G sumably through symbiosis, of various cel that participated in the evolution of the A-U U-A lular organelles ( chloroplasts, mitochond eukaryotes. They would certainly reject G-C UGAAAUCGC AG-CC ria and so on). results in the eukaryotes in recognition of the Protista, which includes cucUUAGCC Ge_/· an entirely novel level of organization. C-G the ancestors of various mctaphytic and G-C U-A This new organization has had funda metazoan groups. A-U A-U mental consequences for the further A basic classification of the living world C-G evolution of the eukaryotes. including will be used not only by specialists but also 5·---GAU-ACA---3· diploidy, sexuality and meiosis. by non taxonomists and lay people. They Right- and left-handed RNA structures. The This was surely the most drastic change will be more comfortable with the classical sequences of bases in the stem and the side in the whole history of the organic world. concept of classification' with its recogni arms are the same, but the latter are inserted It seems that the fundamental difference tion of the traditional grouping of protists. at different positions while retaining the same between prokaryotes and eukaryotes. fungi. metaphytes and metazoans. Grade sequence polarity. The orientation of the bases in the terminal loops are different in the originally pointed out by Chatton '. should of evolutionary development. as well as two molecules. so a specific protein (dashed be made the basis of the first great classi organizational similarity. are stressed in line) may bind to one and not the other. ficatory division in the system of organ this arrangement. which also agrees Alternatively, different proteins might bind to isms. Using the categorical term "domain' with the traditional information-retrieval each molecule. NATURE · VOL 348 · 6 DECEMBER 1990 491 .