Question

A group of scientists was examining a newly discovered unicellular organism in order to classify it as a prokaryote or eukaryote. Which of the following tests would the scientists most likely perform to determine if the organism is a prokaryote or a eukaryote?

Stain to determine if the organism had a cell wall
Stain to determine if the organism had cytoplasmic ribosomes
Stain to determine if there were distinct regions within the organism
Stain to determine where phospholipids were present in the organism


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Answer 1

Scientists would stain to determine if there were distinct regions within the organism, specifically a membrane-bound nucleus, which would classify the organism as a eukaryote since prokaryotes lack such structures.

Step-by-step explanation:

To classify a newly discovered unicellular organism as a prokaryote or a eukaryote, scientists would most likely perform a stain to determine if there were distinct regions within the organism, namely a membrane-bound nucleus and other organelles. This is because the presence of a membrane-bound nucleus and membrane-bound organelles like mitochondria is a defining feature of eukaryotic cells. In contrast, prokaryotic cells do not have a nucleus or other membrane-bound organelles.

Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells can have a cell wall and cytoplasmic ribosomes, so staining for these would not definitively differentiate between the two. Phospholipids are present in the cell membranes of all cells, so this also would not help determine the type of cell. Since eukaryotes were one of the first types of organisms to evolve, this classification test aligns with the understanding of cellular evolution.