BIOLOGICAL classification

Tree
plant Shrubs
herbs
earliest
classification
enaima (RBC present)
[by Aristotle] animal
anaima (RBC absent)

classification
2 kingdom - Linnaeus [Plant + Animal]
3 kingdom - Ernst Haeckel [Plant + Animal + Protista]
4 kingdom - Copeland [Plant + Animal + Protista + Monera]
5 kingdom - R.H. Whittaker [Plant + Animal + Protista + Monera + Fungi]
6 Kingdom - Carl Woese Archaebacteria + Eubacteria + [Plant + Animal + Protista + Fungi]

TWO KINGDOM CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

• Given by Linnaeus.
• Organisms were divided into two kingdoms Plantae and Animalia.
Disadvantages: This system did not distinguish between
1. Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes
2.Unicellular and Multicellular organisms
3. Photosynthetic (green algae) and Non-photosynthetic (fungi)

FIVE KINGDOM CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

• Given by R.H. Whittaker [1969].
• All organisms were divided into five kingdoms
Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia.
The main criteria for classification used by him :-
• Cell structure
• Body organisation
• Mode of nutrition
• Reproduction
• Phylogenetic relationships.
 Characteristics of the Five Kingdoms

Problems with earlier classification

Below given are grouped together :-

Bacteria, blue green algae, fungi, mosses, All under Plants due
ferns, gymnosperms and the angiosperms Presence of cell wall

Chlamydomonas and Spirogyra Grouped together

(Unicellular) (Multicellular)

Fungi and Plants

(Autotrophs) Grouped together
(heterotrophs)

Fungi (Cell wall of chitin)

Grouped together
Plants (Cell wall of cellulose)

(Chlamydomonas and Chlorella) (Paramoecium and Amoeba)

Algae -----Protista Animal ------Protista
before After before After

- Over time, an attempt has been made to evolve a classification system which
reflects not only the morphological, physiological and reproductive similarities,
but is also phylogenetic, i.e., is based on evolutionary relationships.
 Kingdom Monera
• Sole members of the kingdom are bacteria which occur almost everywhere.
• Most abundant Micro-organisms.
• Many of them live in or on other organisms as parasites.
• Show the most extensive metabolic diversity.
• The vast majority of bacteria are heterotrophs, i.e., they depend on other
organisms or on dead organic matter for food.

Bacteria
Spherical Coccus
Rod-shaped Bacillus
Comma shaped Vibrium
Spiral Spirillum Bacteria of different shapes

Archaebacteria (Primitive Bacteria)

• Are special bacteria since they live in some of the harsh habitats such as extreme salty
areas (halophiles) hot springs (thermoacidophiles) and marshy areas (methanogens).
• Have different cell wall structure than other bacteria. This feature is responsible for
their survival in extreme conditions.
• Methanogens produce methane (biogas) and found in gut of ruminant animals.

Eubacteria (True Bacteria)

• They have a rigid cell wall and a flagellum (if motile).
• They include Autotrophs (photosynthetic and chemosynthetic) and Heterotrophs.

(a) Photosynthetic autotrophs (E.g. Cyanobacteria)

• They have chlorophyll a similar to green plants.
• Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are unicellular, colonial or
filamentous, freshwater/marine or terrestrial algae.
• The colonies are generally surrounded by gelatinous sheath.
• They often form blooms in polluted water bodies. Some of them fix
atmospheric nitrogen in specialized cells (heterocysts).
E.g., Nostoc & Anabaena.

A filamentous blue-green
algae – Nostoc
 (b) Chemosynthetic autotrophs: (Eg. Nitrifying Bacteria)
• They oxidize inorganic substances such as nitrates, nitrites & ammonia and use the
released energy for ATP production.
• They help in recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, iron and sulphur.

(c) Heterotrophs
• They are the most abundant in nature.
• The majority are important decomposers.

Parasitic bacteria :
Some are pathogens, They are used to
causing diseases. make curd from milk.
E.g., Cholera, typhoid,
tetanus and citrus canker

IMPACTS OF
HETEROTROPHIC
Symbiotic Bacteria :
BACTERIA
Nitrogen-fixing in
legume roots etc. Production of
(Eg. Rhizobium) antibiotics.

Reproduction in Bacteria
• Bacteria reproduce mainly by fission .
• Under unfavourable conditions, they produce spores.
• They also reproduce by a sort of sexual reproduction by
adopting a primitive type of DNA transfer from one
bacterium to the other.

Mycoplasma (pplo) A dividing bacterium

• Completely lack cell wall.
• Smallest living known cells.
• Can survive without oxygen.
• Are pathogenic to both plants and animals.
 Kingdom Protista
• All single celled eukaryotes are placed in kingdom protista.
• Boundaries of this kingdom are not well defined.
• Members are primarily aquatic.
• It is a link with plants, animals and fungi , Some have fagella or cilia.
• The protistan cell body contains a well defined nucleus and other membrane-bound
organelles.
• Reproduce asexually and sexually by a process involving cell fusion and zygote formation.

1. Chrysophytes diatoms
• Includes diatoms and golden algae (desmids). •They have siliceous cell walls forming two thin
• Found in fresh water as well as in marine . overlapping shells, which fit together as in a
• Microscopic and float passively in water currents soap box .
(plankton). •The left behind cell wall deposit of diatoms over
• Most of them are photosynthetic. billions of years in their habitat is known as
‘diatomaceous earth’.
• Used in polishing and filtration of oils and syrups.
• Diatoms are the chief ‘producers’ in the oceans.

2. Dinoflagellates
• Mostly marine and photosynthetic.
• Appear in various colours depending on main pigments
present in their walls.
• Cell wall has stiff cellulosic plates on the outer surface. (a) Dinoflagellates
• Biflagellates - one lies longitudinally and the other
transversely in a furrow between the wall plates.
• Red dinofagellates (E.g. Gonyaulax) undergo rapid
multiplication so that the sea appears red (red tides).
(b) Euglena

3. Euglenoids
• Mainly fresh water organisms found in stagnant water.
• Cell wall absent but proteinaceous pellicle present.
• Biflagellated - one short and one long flagella. (c) Slime mould
• Photosynthetic in presence of sunlight and predators in
absence of sunlight.
• The pigments are identical to those in higher plants.
E.g. Euglena (connecting link between plants and animals)
(d) Paramoecium
 4. Slime Moulds
• Are saprophytic protists.
• Body moves along decaying twigs and leaves engulfing organic material.
• Under favourable conditions form plasmodium
• Under unfavourable conditions they form fruiting bodies.
• Spores have true walls, resistant to adverse conditions and dispersed by air currents.

5. Protozoans
- Heterotrophs (predators or parasites).
- Primitive relatives of animals.

Amoeboid protozoans
• They live in fresh water, sea water or moist soil.
• They move and capture prey by putting out pseudopodia (false feet), e.g., Amoeba.
• Marine forms have silica shells on their surface. Some of them are parasites, e.g., Entamoeba.

Flagellated protozoans
• Either free-living or parasitic.
• They have flagella.
• The parasitic forms cause diaseases such as sleeping sickness.
Example: Trypanosoma.

Ciliated protozoans
• They are aquatic, actively moving organisms using thousands of cilia.
• They have a cavity (gullet) that opens to outside of the cell surface.
• The coordinated movement of rows of cilia causes the water laden with food
to be steered into the gullet. E.g. Paramecium.

Sporozoans
• They have inflectious spore like stage in their life-cycle.
Eg. Plasmodium (malarial parasite)
 Kingdom Fungi
• Constitute a unique kingdom of heterotrophic organisms.
• Show great diversity in morphology and habitat.
• They grow in warm and humid places. E.g ; Mushroom, toadstools etc.
• Some unicellular fungi (e.g. yeast) are used to make bread and beer.
• Other fungi cause diseases in plants and animals. E.g. wheat rust-causing Puccinia.
• Some fungi are the source of antibiotics, E.g., Penicillium
• Fungi are cosmopolitan and occur in air, water, soil and on animals and plants.

- Except yeasts which are unicellular, fungi are filamentous.

- Their bodies consist of long, slender thread-like structures called hyphae.
- The network of hyphae is known as mycelium.
- Some hyphae are continuous tubes flled with multinucleated cytoplasm. These
are called coenocytic hyphae.
- Others have septae or cross walls in their hyphae.
- The cell walls of fungi are composed of chitin and polysaccharides.

saprophytes :- Absorb soluble organic matter from dead substrates

parasites :- depend on living plants and animals

symbionts :- lichens - (Fungi + Algae)
Mycorrhiza - (Fungi + Roots of higher plants)

Vegetative Means (fragmentation, fission and budding)

Reproduction
asexual reproduction (conidia or sporangiospores or zoospores)
in fungi
sexual reproduction (oospores, ascospores and basidiospores)

The sexual cycle involves three steps :-

(1) Plasmogyamy – Fusion of protoplasm between two motile or non-motile gametes.
(2) Karyogamy – Fusion of two nuclei.
(3) Meiosis – In zygote results in haploid spores.
• When a fungus reproduces sexually, two haploid hyphae of compatible mating types
come together and fuse.
• In some fungi, the fusion of two haploid cells immediately results in diploid cells (2n).
• In ascomycetes and basidiomycetes, a dikaryotic stage or dikaryophase (n + n, i.e. two
nuclei per cell) occurs. Such a condition is called a dikaryon. Later, parental nuclei
fuse and the cells become diploid.
• The fungi form fruiting bodies in which reduction division occurs, leading to formation
of haploid spores.

Based on morphology of mycelium, mode of spore formation & fruiting

bodies, fungi are classifed into different classes:

1. Phycomycetes
- Aquatic habitats and on decaying woodor as obligate parasites on plant.
- Aseptate and coenocytic.
- Asexual reproduction: By motile zoospores or by non - motile aplanospores.
- These are endogenously produced in sporangium.
- Sexual reproduction: Zygospores are formed by fusion of two gametes.
- These gametes are isogamous (similar in morphology) or anisogamous or oogamous (dissimilar).
E.g,- Mucor
Rhizopus (bread mould)
Albugo (the parasitic fungi on mustard)

2. Ascomycetes
- Commonly known as sac-fungi.
- Mostly Multicellular E.g, (Penicillium) and Rarely Unicellular E.g, Yeast (saccharomyces).
-They are saprophytic, decomposers, parasitic or coprophilous (growing on dung).
- Mycelium is branched and septate.
- Asexual reproduction: By conidia produced exogenously on the special mycelium called
conidiophores. Conidia germinate to produce mycelium.
- Sexual reproduction: By ascospores produced endogenously in sac like asci (sing. ascus).
- The asci are arranged in different types of fruiting bodies called ascocarps.
- E.g. Aspergillus, Claviceps and Neurospora.
- Neurospora is used in biochemical and genetic work.
- Morels & truffes are edible.
 3. Basidiomycetes
- Commonly known mushrooms, bracket fungi or puffballs.
- Grow in soil, on logs and treestumps or as parasites e.g. rustand smuts.
- The mycelium is branched and septate.
- The asexual spores are generally not found, but vegetative reproduction by
fragmentation is common.
- The sex organs are absent, but plasmogamy occurs by fusion of two vegetative
or somatic cells of different strains or genotypes.
- The resultant structure is dikaryotic which gives rise to basidium. Karyogamy
and meiosis take place in basidium producing four basidiospores. Basidiospores
are exogenouslyproduced on the basidium. Basidia are arranged in fruiting
bodies (basidiocarps).
E.g. Agaricus (mushroom), Ustilago (smut) and Puccinia (rust fungus).

4. Deuteromycetes
- Commonly known as imperfect fungi because only the asexual or vegetative
phases of these fungi are known.
- They reproduce only by asexual spores (conidia).
- The mycelium is septate and branched.
- Some are saprophytes or parasites. Majority are decomposers of litter and help
in mineral cycling.
E.g. Alternaria, Colletotrichum and Trichoderma.

KINGDOM PLANTAE Kingdom Animalia

- Includes all eukaryotic chlorophyll containing - Includes heterotrophic eukaryotic organisms
organisms called plants. called animals.
- Some are partially heterotrophic such as - These are multicellular and lack cell walls.
insectivorous plants e.g.Cuscuta, Bladderwort
- Mode of nutrition is holozoic.
and Venus fly trap.
- Store food as glycogen or fat.
- Life cycle has two distinct phases - diploid
- Are capable of locomotion.
sporophytic and haploid gametophytic,
- Higher forms show elaborate sensory and
phenomenon called alternation of generation.
neuromotor mechanism
 VIRUSES
- In R.H. Whittaker's system, there is no mention of lichens, viruses, viroids and prions.
- Viruses are non-cellular that are characterised by having an inert crystalline structure outside
the living cell.
- Viruses contain either RNA or DNA.
- Viruses are obligate parasites. When they infect a cell, they take over the machinery of the host
cell to replicate themselves, killing the host. Thus, they are a connecting link between living and
non living.
- D.J. Ivanowsky (1892) discovered virus. He recognized certain microbes that cause mosaic
disease of tobacco. They were smaller than bacteria because they passed through bacteria-proof
filters.
- M.W. Beijerinek (1898) demonstrated that the extract of the infected tobacco plants cause
infection in healthy plants and called the fuid as Contagium vivum fluidum (infectious living fuid).
- W.M. Stanley (1935) showed that viruses could be crystallised and crystals consist largely of
- proteins.
A virus is a nucleoprotein, i.e., it has a protein coat (capsid) & genetic material (RNA or DNA).
- The genetic material is infectious.
- No virus contains both RNA & DNA.
- Generally, viruses that infect plants have single stranded RNA. Viruses that infect animals have
either single or double stranded RNA or double stranded DNA. Bacteriophages (viruses that
infect bacteria) usually have double stranded DNA.
- The capsid is made of small subunits (capsomeres) protects nucleic acid. Capsomeres are
arranged in helical or polyhedral geometric forms.
- Viruses cause diseases like mumps, small pox, herpes, influenza & AIDS. In plants, the symptoms
can be mosaic formation, leaf rolling and curling, yellowing and vein clearing, dwarfng and stunted
growth.
Virus that infect Made up of
• Plant - ss RNA • Virus - Nucleic acid + protein
• ANIMAL - ss/ds RNA , ds DNA • Viroids - Only Nucleic acid
• Bacteriophage - ds DNA Viruses • Prions - Only protein

(a) Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) (b) Bacteriophage