Cell

A cell is part of the microscopic anatomy of many types of lifeforms.

Origins and biology
During the earliest stages of evolution, chemical compounds will form, and interactions will determine the synthesis of life's building blocks. The basic structure of early viable life will tend to become enclosed, in the cell, and reproduce itself. Single-celled lifeforms eventually give way to multicellular life through mutation, leaving the cell as the most basic form of all descendant lifeforms.

In the nucleus, cells contain the genes of a lifeform, the recorded pattern that determines the growth and structure. In the majority of the galaxy, cellular nuclei have common chemical structures which store genetic data as deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, with associated structures made of RNA. This commonality owes to an ancient progenitor civilization that, at the end of their existence, encoded messages into genetic strands left on class M planets. Many of those worlds gave rise to the various forms of humanoid life that make up the majority of the galaxy's population. 

Cells reproduce by cellular division. The cell will eventually build up enough structures to support the synthesis of a new cell, and the nucleus will divide. The cell wall will grow between the two nuclei, and the new cell will separate. Unless some factor introduces a change to the genetic structure, the new cell will have identical genes compared to the original.

When an external factor causes a change in the genetic structure, it is referred to as a mutation. Otherwise, lifeforms that evolve sexual reproduction will undergo a process by which cells from different individuals combine genetic material.

Genetic data in a protein shell that can subsume cells is called a virus. Viral infection of a cell usually involves the replacement of the cell's genetic data with a copy of the virus, which can then use the cell for a different purpose. Viral reproduction can then occur, and the new virus can move to other cells. Viral infection can also lead a cell to divide into a new cell that has been taken over by the same virus.

Cell structure

 * nucleus
 * DNA
 * mitochondria
 * cell wall

Single-cell lifeforms

 * bacteria