This is a review article from International Microbiology (2006) which explores the history and future of the prokaryote concept. Topics covered include the seminal 1962 'Concept of a bacterium' paper, history of the term 'monera,' 'prokaryote' and 'eukaryote' as organizational versus natural groupings, discovery of archaea and the three domains of life, and the chimeric nature of eukaryotic genomes. There is an extensive bibliography, and copies of the abstract in Spanish and Portuguese.
