The origin of the eukaryotic cell represents one of the most significant innovations in the history of life. Prokaryotic and eukary- otic cells have distinct modes of cell division both in the mechanisms of cell bifurcation and DNA segregation and in the under- lying protein components that drive those processes. Recent phylogenomic analysis shows that most mitotic components were already present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA), Given the presence of modern-like cell cycle complexity in LECA, it is expected that homologues exist among prokaryotes for at least some of the components involved. This study used the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) to survey the proteomes of prokaryotes (in particular, members of the Asgard superphylum) for potential homologues of components of the anaphase promoting complex / cyclosome (APC/C) and its substrates and the mitotic checkpoint complex (MCC) and kinetochore network. Although the data gathered have failed to definitively show the presence of full homologues for most of the proteins investigated, this analysis reveals that the mitotic machinery is closely associated with eukaryogenesis. While the time window available for the origin of these mechanisms is unclear, even a large window (e.g., 2–3 billion years of time) would be insufficient for blind evolutionary mechanisms to produce such complex systems. This analysis raises significant questions about the feasibility of evolutionary processes to account for such an abrupt transition.