prokaryotes

Cultural  

1. Organisms whose cells do not have a nucleus in which DNA is housed and which lack many of the organelles found in more advanced cells. The kingdom of Monera or Prokaryotae is composed of single-celled prokaryotes. (Compare eukaryotes.)

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It is thought that prokaryotes were the first cells to appear on Earth.

Example Sentences

Bacteria are the best-understood prokaryotes, and because of their simple genetic structure, provided the team with the ideal host to analyze the mechanisms and machinery involved in the ribosome-RNAP coupling during gene expression.

From Science Daily • Nov. 28, 2024

These findings deviate from the currently assumed potential of prokaryotes and biogeochemical processes related to climate change.

From Science Daily • Dec. 6, 2023

Analyzing microbes in Tirez soil samples from 2002 and 2021 for a study in Scientific Reports, Fairén and his colleagues found that single-celled organisms called prokaryotes had adapted to thrive in extremely dry sediments.

From Scientific American • May 27, 2023

However, not all prokaryotes are dangerous—in fact, some strains are essential for our bodies to function correctly.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

It has been suggested that flagellae and cilia were once spirochetes that joined up with the other prokaryotes when nucleated cells were being pieced together.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas