The transition to compartmentalization and
a eukaryotic cellular organization was facilitated by: (i) the ability to lipidate GTPases; (ii) the coupling of SNARE and longin domains; and (iii) the acquisition of dynamins and CopII - like coatamer proteins.
My research is framed within the Wellcome Trust consortium on the archaeal origins of
eukaryotic cell
organization (http://evocyt.com/), which includes a diverse group of researchers studying the evolution of
eukaryotic machinery from different points of view — e.g. how do specific
cellular systems work in different lineages, and how did that affect the origin of the
eukaryotic cell plan?