BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION

 Classification is the system of grouping organisms in various categories according to

their similarities and dissimilarities of characters.
 Aristotle first attempted to classify organisms on the basis of simple morphological
features. Later gradually different systems of classification were proposed.

TWO KINGDOM CLASSIFICATION:

 All photosynthetic organisms with cell walls were included under kingdom
Plantae. This failed to differentiate among unicellular and multicellular
photosynthetic organisms, green algae and non-photosynthetic fungi.
 All other heterotrophic organisms having holozoic nutrition and lacking cell walls
are included under kingdom Animalia. This also could not differentiate between
unicellular and multicellular organisms.
 There were confusions with few organisms which possess both plant and animal
like features.

Two Kingdom Classification

Plantae Animalia

FIVE KINGDOM CLASSIFICATION

 R.H. Whittaker (1969) proposed this scheme of classification.The main criteria used
by him were cell structure, thallus organisation, mode of nutrition, reproduction and
phylogenetic relationships. Some characters of all the five kingdoms are listed below:
KINGDOM MONERA
 Bacteria are the sole members of this kingdom.
 Habitat may be air, water, soil. Some bacteria can live in extreme conditions like hot
springs, deserts, snow and deep oceans. Some live as endoparasites or ectoparasites.
 Bacteria are classified according to their different shapes: spherical coccus (pl: cocci),
rod shaped bacillus (pl: bacilli), comma shaped vibrium (pl: vibrio) and spiral shaped
spirillum (pl: spirilla).

 They have a rigid, cell wall made of peptidoglycan.

 Their mode of nutrition may be photosynthetic, chemosynthetic, saprotrophic,
parasitic and symbiotic. They show extensive metabolic diversity.
 Bacteria reproduce mainly by binary fission under favourable conditions and
by spores under unfavourable conditions. A sexual reproductive mode is observed
where transfer of DNA occurs from one bacterial cell to another.
 Monerans can be grouped into Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Cyanobacteria and
Mycoplasma.
Archaebacteria:
 Due to special cell wall structure, these bacteria can survive extreme
harsh conditions.
 They are called halophiles if the habitat is extreme salty areas,
thermoacidophiles if they survive in hot springs and methanogens if
they exist in marshy areas.
 Methanogens also inhabit the guts of ruminants (cows and buffaloes).
They are responsible for production of methane (biogas) from the dung
of these animals.
Eubacteria:

 They are ‘true bacteria’ having rigid cell walls and if motile, a flagellum.
 This group includes:
a) photosynthetic autotrophs called cyanobacteria or blue-green algae-
 They have chlorophyll a similar to green plants.
 They may be unicellular, colonial or filamentous, freshwater or marine
or terrestrial forms generally surrounded by a gelatinous sheath.
 They often form blooms in polluted water bodies.
 Some cyanobacteria have specialised cells for nitrogen fixation called
heterocysts, e.g. Nostoc and Anabaena.
 Spirulina may be used as human food source for its rich protein content.
 A dividing bacterium
Nostoc- a blue-green alga

 b) Chemosynthetic autotrophs-
 They oxidise various inorganic substances such as nitrates, nitrites and
ammonia and use the released energy for their ATP production.
 They play a role in recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, iron
and sulphur.
 c) Heterotrophic bacteria-
 They are the most abundant forms and mostly decomposers.
 Some forms are helpful to mankind, e.g. for making curd from milk,
production of antibiotics, nitrogen fixation in legume roots etc.
 Some forms are disease causing pathogens of crops, farm animals and human
beings and pets, e.g. they cause cholera, typhoid, tetanus, citrus canker etc.
 d) Mycoplasmas-
 They are the smallest living cells that can survive without oxygen.
 They completely lack cell wall.
 Many mycoplasmas are pathogenic in animals and plants.
 They are also known as PPLO ( Pleuropneumonia like organisms).

KINGDOM PROTISTA

 All unicellular eukaryotes are placed under Protista.

  This kingdom includes Chrysophytes, Dianoflagellates, Euglenoids, Slime moulds
and Protozoans.
 They possess well-defined nucleus and membrane-bound cell organelles.
 Some have flagella or cilia.
 Reproduction either asexual or sexual by cell fusion and zygote formation.
Chrysophytes:

 This group includes diatoms and golden algae (desmids) which are mostly
photosynthetic planktons found in both fresh water and marine water.
 The indestructible cell wall of diatoms is made of two thin overlapping shells like a
soap-box and are rich in silica.
 Large amount of cell wall deposits of dead diatoms accumulate at the bottom of water
reservoirs and form big heaps of diatomaceous earth.
 Being very hard and gritty this material is used in polishing, filtration of oils and
syrups etc.
 Diatoms are chief producers of oceans.

Chrysophyte colony

Dinoflagellates:

 Marine photosynthetic forms of golden brown, yellow, green, blue or red colour
according to the pigments present.
 Cell wall is made of stiff cellulose plates on the outer surface.
 Most forms have two flagella- one lies longitudinally and the other transversely in a
furrow between the wall plates.
 Red dinoflagellates (examples: Gonyaulax, Gymnodinium) form ‘red tides’ in sea.
Their rapid multiplication make the sea water appear red. They release toxins that
may kill fishes and other marine animals.

Dinoflagellates

Euglenoids:

 These forms are found in fresh stagnant water.

  Instead of cell wall, they have a protein rich layer called pellicle which makes the
body flexible.
 They have two flagella- a short and a long one.
 They show a dual mode of nutrition. In presence of sunlight, they are autotrophic,
when deprived of sunlight they are heterotrophic predating on smaller animals.
 Pigments in euglenoids are identical to those of higher plants. Ex: Euglena.

Euglena Paramoecium

Slime Moulds:

 They are saprophytic protists engulfing organic material of decaying twigs and leaves
as they move over them.
 They aggregate to form plasmodium under suitable conditions and may spread over
several feet.
 Plasmodiums form fruiting bodies bearing spores at their tips under unfavourable
conditions. The walls of the spores make them extremely resistant to adverse
conditions and make them survive for many years. Spores are dispersed by air
currents.

Slime Mould

Protozoans:

 They are heterotrophs and are predators or parasites.

 They are four major groups of protozoans-
 Amoeboid Protozoans: i) They have pseudopodia (false feet); example- Amoeba.
ii)Some are parasites such as Entamoeba.
 Flagellated Protozoans: They bear flagella, may be free living or parasitic,
e.g. Trypanosoma is a parasite that causes sleeping sickness.
  Ciliated Protozoans: They possess thousands of cilia that produce water current to
help them move and direct the food towards the gullet (a opening in the cell surface).
 Sporozoans: Such organisms have an infectious spore like stage in their life cycle, e.g.
malarial parasite Plasmodium.

KINGDOM FUNGI
 Mostly multicellular filamentous forms with exception of unicellular yeast.
 Body is long, slender and thread -like called hyphae. Hyphae form network called
mycelium. Their cell walls are made of chitin and polysaccharides.
 Some have aseptate (tube-like without cross walls or septa) and multinucleated
hyphae called coenocytic hyphae. Others have septate hyphae.
 Fungi are heterotrophs. They may be parasitic, saprophytic or symbiotic as in
mycorrhizae (in roots of higher plants) and lichens.
 Reproductive modes may be vegetative (by fragmentation, fission or budding),
asexual (by conidia, zoospores, aplanospores/sporangiospores) and sexual (by
plasmogamy, karyogamy and meiosis in zygote).
 Dikaryon is an intermediate stage in the mode of sexual reproduction in Fungi,
especially in ascomycetes and basidiomycetes. Here the fusion of gamete cells of +
and - strains does not immediately form a diploid cell with 2n. Instead the fusion of
gametes results in the formation of n+n stage which is called as dikaryon. It later
forms a diploid cell with 2n condition which undergoes reduction division to form
haploid spores.
 Kingdom Fungi is divided into four classes based on
i) morphology of mycelium
ii) mode of spore formation
iii) mode of sexual reproduction
iv) nature of fruiting bodies.
The features of different classes of fungi are enlisted as follows:

Morpholog
Class of Asexual
Mode of nutrition y of Sexual spores Examples
Fungi spores
mycelium
Zygospores(forme
Zoospores
d by isogamy-
(motile), Mucor and Rhizopus
Phycomycet Saprotrophs, Coenocytic, similar gametes,
Aplanospo (saprotrophs),
es Parasites aseptate or anisogamy-
res (non- Albugo (parasitic)
dissimilar
motile)
gametes)

Yeast, Aspergillus,
Claviceps,
Conidia Ascospores Penicillium,Neurosp
Saprophytic,deco
(exogenou (endogenous on ora(used in
Ascomycete mposers, parasitic, Branched,se
s on asci arranged on biochemical and
s(sac-fungi) coprophilous(grow ptate
conidioph fruiting bodies genetic works),
on dung)
ores) called ascocarp) morels and
buffles(both are
edible)

No sex organs,
sexual
No reproduction by
Basidiomyce
asexual plasmogamy,kary
tes
spores, ogamy, dikaryon
(mushrooms Saprophytic, Agaricus(mushroom)
Branched,se vegetative and meiosis-
, bracket- parasitic (rusts and , Ustilago(smut),
ptate reproducti forms
fungi or smuts) Puccinia(rust)
on by basidiospores
puffballs,
fragmentat exogenous on
gill-fungi)
ion basidia in fruiting
bodies called
basidiocarps)
Conidia
Deuteromyc
Saprophytes, (exogenou Sexual Alternaria,
etes Branched,se
parasites, s on reproduction Colletotrichum,
(imperfect ptate
decomposers conidioph absent Trichoderma
fungi)
ores)

KINGDOM PLANTAE
  Members are mostly multicellular, exception-Chlamydomonas, Chlorella are
unicellular.
 All are autotrophic eukaryotic, exceptions may be either partially heterotrophic (as in
insectivorous plants Bladderwort and Venus fly trap) or parasitic (Cuscuta).
 They possess chloroplast and cell walls made of cellulose.
 Diploid sporophytic and haploid gametophytic phases are present in life cycle which
show alternation of generation, these phases may be free-living or dependent on
others.

KINGDOM ANIMALIA
 Members are heterotrophic having holozoic nutrition.
 They are multicellular having eukaryotic cells lacking cell walls.
 Definite growth pattern, definite shapes and sizes are seen in them.
 Higher forms have elaborate sensory and neuromotor mechanism, most forms are
capable of locomotion.
 Sexual reproduction and embryonic development seen in them.

VIRUSES
 The name ‘Virus’ meaning venom or poisonous fluid was coined by Pasteur.
 D. J. Ivanowsky (1892) discovered tobacco mosaic virus.
 M.W. Beijerinek (1898) discovered that virus containing extract from infected plants
can infect healthy plants.
 W.M. Stanley (1935) showed that viruses can be crystallised and crystals contain
largely of proteins.
 They are inert outside their host cells and are obligate parasites.
 Viruses are nucleoproteins- a nucleic acid (RNA/DNA) surrounded by a protein coat
called capsid made of small subunits called capsomeres; DNA/RNA may be either
single stranded or double stranded and is infectious.
 Viruses infecting plants have single stranded RNA.
 Viruses infecting animals have either single or double stranded RNA or double
stranded DNA.
 They cause mumps, small pox, herpes, influenza and AIDS in man.
 In plants the symptoms of viral diseases are mosaic formation, leaf rolling and
curling, yellowing and vein-clearing, dwarfing and stunted growth.

VIROIDS
 Viroids are discovered by T.O. Diener (1971).
 These are smallest known infectious agents. A viroid is a short single stranded RNA
of low molecular weight that lack a capsid.
 Potato Spindle Tuber disease is caused by PST viroid.

LICHENS
 Lichens are symbiotic associations between algae and fungi. The autotrophic algal
component is called phycobiont and the heterotrophic fungal component is called
mycobiont.
 The algae prepare food for fungi whereas the fungi provide shelter and absorb mineral
nutrients and water for the algae.
 Lichens are very good pollution indicators as they do not grow in polluted areas.