Author's reply

Abstract

In regard to the comments on our Opinion article (Sporulation, bacterial cell envelopes and the origin of life. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 14, 535–542 (2016)), by Iain C. Sutcliffe and Lynn G. Dover (Comment on Tocheva et al. "Sporulation, bacterial cell envelopes and the origin of life". Nat. Rev. Microbiol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2016.113 (2016)), we wholeheartedly agree that it will be interesting to see how our hypothesis holds up to future discoveries of new and potentially different phyla, and said so ourselves in the 'evolutionary implications' section of our article.

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