Is the eukaryotic cell a colony?

Hi Caffeine,Resurrecting an old thread I know, but I found something today linked to this so I thought I'd pop you the link.As Wounded King outlines Dawkins is referring to Margulis's idea about the origin of various features of the Eukaryotic cell via endosymbiosis. It's now widely accepted that some organelles, noteably Mitochondria and Chloroplasts, were acquired by endosymbiosis.Margulis's original idea included the notion that cilia also started as endosymbiotic bacteria. It is now known that this idea is incorrect, see this paper on the evolution of the eukaryotic cilium (aka flagellum)

Um... when I click on the link I gave I get the full text of the paper?

No, it's not. I'm not showing as logged in, and I can access it fine from another browser.Perhaps you could try starting from the home page of Wiley Interscience and navigating through to the article. It's in the April 2009 issue of Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton, on pages 215—219. It's called 'The Evolution of the Cilium and the Eukaryotic Cell'. If that doesn't work, I'm afraid I'm stumped because, as far as I know, I don't have any special access rights to it?Edited by Mr Jack, : No reason given.

I'm only an aspiring biologist, myself.Endosymbiosis doesn't necessarily imply phagocytosis - it could develop from parasitism, for example. As I understand Margulis's original idea it was suggested that the original cilia cells would have lived as external symbionts in a colonial arrangement and then, over time, become more closely joined until they formed the arrangement we see today.I don't think Dawkins meant the term 'colony' to be taken in any technical manner but simple as a group living together.