Understanding the origin of eukaryotic cells is one of the most difficult problems in all of biology. A key challenge relevant to the question of eukaryogenesis is reconstructing the gene repertoire of the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA). As data sets grow, sketching an accurate genomics-informed picture of early eukaryotic cellular complexity requires provision of analytical resources and a commitment to data sharing. Here, we summarise progress towards understanding the biology of LECA and outline a community approach to inferring its wider gene repertoire. Once assembled, a robust LECA gene set will be a useful tool for evaluating alternative hypotheses about the origin of eukaryotes and understanding the evolution of traits in all descendant lineages, with relevance in diverse fields such as cell biology, microbial ecology, biotechnology, agriculture, and medicine. In this Consensus View, we put forth the status quo and an agreed path forward to reconstruct LECA's gene content.

Barcelona Supercomputing Centre Barcelona Spain

Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies Barcelona Spain

Cell Biochemistry Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Groningen the Netherlands

Center for Mechanisms of Evolution School of Life Sciences Arizona State University Tempe Arizona United States of America

Centre for Genomic Regulation Barcelona Spain

Centre for Life's Origins and Evolution Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment University College London United Kingdom

Charles University Faculty of Science Department of Parasitology BIOCEV Vestec Czech Republic

CIBER de Enfermedades Infecciosas Instituto de Salud Carlos 3 Madrid Spain

Department of Algal Development and Evolution Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen Tübingen Germany

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Institute for Comparative Genomics Dalhousie University Halifax Canada

Department of Biological Sciences Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana United States of America

Department of Biology Lund University Lund Sweden

Department of Biology University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst Massachusetts United States of America

Department of Biology University of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology The University of Rhode Island Kingston Rhode Island United States of America

Department of Computational Biology University of Lausanne Lausanne Switzerland

Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology University of California Santa Barbara California United States of America

Department of Evolution Ecology and Behaviour Institute of Infection Veterinary and Ecological Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool United Kingdom

Division of Infectious Diseases Department of Medicine and Department of Biological Sciences University of Alberta Edmonton Canada

Ecologie Systématique Evolution CNRS Université Paris Saclay AgroParisTech Gif sur Yvette France

Hubrecht Institute KNAW Oncode Institute UMC Utrecht Utrecht the Netherlands

Institut de Biologia Evolutiva Barcelona Spain

Institute for Research in Biomedicine The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology Barcelona Spain

Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences České Budějovice Czech Republic

Laboratory of Microbiology Wageningen University and Research Wageningen the Netherlands

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University Okinawa Japan

School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences Queen Mary University of London London United States of America

School of Biological Sciences University of Bristol Bristol United Kingdom

School of Life Sciences University of Nottingham Nottingham United Kingdom

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics Lausanne Switzerland

Theoretical Biology and Bioinformatics Department of Biology Faculty of Science Utrecht University Utrecht the Netherlands

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