Reproduction in prokaryotes is most often asexual, through binary fission.
Prokaryotes have a single circular (only exceptionally linear, as in Borrelia burgdorferi or the Streptomyces) chromosome, contained within a region called nucleoid, rather than in a membrane-bound nucleus.
Fossilized prokaryotes three and a half billion years old have been discovered, and prokaryotes are perhaps the most successful and abundant organism even today.
Some research indicates that at least some prokaryotes contain protein-enclosed microcompartments which can be seen as primitive organelles.
A cooperative, symbiotic relationship involving prokaryotes living within other cells has been proposed by Lynn Margulis for the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts in eukaryotes.
Most prokaryotes are bacteria, and the two terms are often treated as synonyms.
Prokaryotes also lack membrane-bound cell compartments such as vacuoles, endoplasmic reticula, mitochondria, and chloroplasts.
Prokaryotes are usually much smaller than eukaryotic cells, having roughly one tenth the diameter of eukaryotes.
Prokaryotes also have cell walls, while some eukaryotes, particularly animals, do not.
The cell structure of prokaryotes differs greatly from that of eukaryotes in many ways.
The difference between the structure of prokaryotes and eukaryotes is so great that it is considered to be the most important distinction among groups of organisms.
Both eukaryotes and prokaryotes have structures called ribosomes, which produce protein, but prokaryotic ribosomes are smaller than those of eukaryotes.
The metabolism of prokaryotes is far more varied than that of eukaryotes, leading to many highly distinct types of prokaryotes.
Most prokaryotes are bacteria, and the two terms are often treated as synonyms.
Prokaryotes (from Greek: pro- “before” + karyon “nut,” referring to the cell nucleus, + suffix -otos, pl.