Question

Serial Endosymbiotic Theory (SET) was proposed by Dr. Lynn Margulis (then Lynn Sagan) in the 1960s by drawing on experimental evidence from multiple disciplines. Which of the following statements is consistent with SET? Explain. a. SET suggests that the ancestral prokaryote was chimeric in nature due to the horizontal fusions of distinct prokaryotic species; this hypothesis complicates the theory of linear descent as outlined by Darwin. b. The unicellular protist parasite Giardia lamblia, that causes diarrheal disease in humans and animals, is anaerobic, lacks mitochondria, but has a double membraned organelle termed mitosome; these observations suggest that G. lamblia shares a more recent common ancestor with prokaryotes than with eukaryotes. c. Dr. Margulis proposed that endosymbiosis was an adaptation to an aerobic environment; that is, the introduction of oxygen into Earth's atmosphere followed the origin of the ancestral eukaryotic cell. d. All extant eukaryotes have cells with a nucleus and a well-developed cytoskeleton that enable the cell to move and to change shape. This property suggests that the ancestral eukaryote may have been capable of phagocytosis but not photosynthesis.

Answer 1

The correct answer is-

a. SET suggests that the ancestral prokaryote was chimeric in nature due to horizontal fusions of distinct prokaryotic species; this hypothesis complicates the theory of linear descent as outlined by Darwin.

Because the SET theory is mainly based on merging, fusion, and incorporation.