Biological Classification

 Inbiology, a wide variety and number of living organisms exist and their individual study and
research is an impossible task. Hence, to make this easier, the living world is always studied in
categories as it has been classified.
 Thesimplest classification was done by Aristotle, the father of biology. He divided plants into trees,
shrubs and herbs, on the basis of simple morphological characters and also animals into two groups,
those having red blood and those who did not.
 CarlLinnaeus, the father of taxonomy, developed a system of two kingdom classification with
Plantae and Animalia kingdoms having all the species of plants and animals respectively. This was
easy to understand and study but had numerous compilations, like:
o Sponges do not locomote, like plants, but excrete nitrogenous wastes, like animals.
o Lichens were not given an appropriate classification.
o Fungi was placed under plant kingdoms but had no chloroplasts.
o Bacteriawas placed under the plant kingdom but had a cell wall made up of peptidoglycan and not
cellulose and also, very few species of bacteria had chloroplasts.
o Chlamydomonas is unicellular and motile, bears chlorophyll and exhibits autotrophic mode of
nutrition.
o Euglena had a cell mouth like an animal but sice it has chloroplasts, it was classified under plants.
 After
previous confusions and uncertainty in the placement of organisms, the two
kingdom classification was found inadequate and was rejected later on.
 Aftervarious efforts for classification of the living world, R.H. Whittaker proposed a five
kingdom classification, where the main criteria of classification used by him was
included cell structure, body organisation, mode of nutrition, reproduction and
phylogenetic relationships.
 The five kingdoms are: Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia.
N.B. A three domain classification system has also been proposed leading to the division of
kingdom Monera into two domains and leaving the eukaryotic kingdoms in the third
domain leading to a six kingdom classification. But we shall study Whittaker’s
classification in detail here.
classification on the
basis of evolutionary
traits
 (1) Kingdom Monera
 This kingdom comprises all the prokaryotic and unicellular organisms.
 Thekey organism in this kingdom is bacteria, prokaryotic microorganisms that are found
everywhere, starting from soil to extreme habitats such as hot springs, geysers, saline water,
deserts, snow, etc.
 Bacteria are further grouped on the basis of their shapes:
o Coccus: the spherical dot shaped bacteria
o Bacillus: the rod shaped bacteria
o Vibrium: the comma shaped bacteria
o Spirillum: the spiral shaped bacteria
 Bacteria
have simple structure with a cell wall made up of peptidoglycan ( a carbohydrate)
but complex behaviour, showing the most extensive metabolic diversity and they can be
autotrophic (photosynthetic or chemosynthetic) or heterotrophic.
 Thevastness of this kingdom can be studied in two categories : Archaebacteria and
eubacteria
1.1 ARCHAEBACTERIA :
These bacteria inhabit the most inhospitable areas such as salty waters (halophiles), hot springs
(thermoacidophiles) and marshy areas (methanogens, even present in the gut of several ruminants).
Archaebacteria differ from eubacteria in having an extra covering i.e. having a different cell wall structure
which help them in their survival in these extreme habitats.
1.2 EUBACTERIA:
These are ‘true bacteria’, characterised by a rigid cell wall and a flagellum, if motile.
The cyanobacteria are unicellular photosynthetic autotrophs, having chlorophyll a and can be colonial or
filamentous, freshwater or marine or terrestrial. Cyanobacteria are known to fix atmospheric oxygen in
specialised cells called heterocyst.
Certain
chemosynthetic autotrophic bacteria oxidise inorganic substances like nitrates nitrites and
ammonia and use the released energy for ATP production.
The heterotrophic autotrophic bacteria are the most abundant bacteria with the vast majority of them being
decomposers in nature. They can be helpful in the production of curd from milk, production of antibiotics,
nitrogen fixation in roots of legumes and also show pathogenic activity in humans plants and animals.
Mycoplasma are the smallest living organisms and completely lack a cell wall. They survive anaerobically
and many of their species are pathogenic in animal and plants.
 Bacteria
reproduce asexually through binary fission, under unfavorable condition they are
known to produce spores and they also reproduce by the transfer of DNA through
conjugation, transduction and transformation, these can be considered sexual ways of
reproduction.

binary fission in conjugation in

bacteria bacteria
 (2) Kingdom Protista
 This kingdom comprises, predominantly, all the eukaryotic and unicellular organisms.
 This kingdom forms a link with other kingdoms (meaning they can be plant-like i.e. unicellular
algae, animal-like i.e. protozoan and fungi-like i.e. slime mould) and sometime it is hard to set a
boundary for this kingdom as ‘a phototrophic protist’ to one biologist maybe ‘a plant’ to another.
 Protists are primarily aquatic and have a well defined nucleus and other membrane-bound
organelles, having cilia or flagella for locomotion and may reproduce sexually or asexually.
 Protists can be also pathogenic and causes diseases in humans like, malaria and sleeping
sickness.
 The important organisms protists include:
1.1 Chrysophytes
1.2 Dinoflagellates,
1.3 Euglenoids,
1.4 Slime moulds
1.5 Protozoans.
 1.1 CHRYSOPHYTES
 This group includes diatoms and golden
algae (desmids).
 They can be either freshwater or marine,
are microscopic and float passively
(planktons).
 They are mostly photosynthetic and the
cell wall form two thin overlapping shells
which fit together as in a soap box.
 Their walls are embedded with silica and
hence they are destructible, so, they leave
large amount of cell wall deposits in their
habitats.
 This accumulation over billions of years is
referred to as ‘diatomaceous earth’.
 Diatoms are the chief ‘producers’ in the
Golden Algae (chrysophytes colony)
oceans.
 1.2
DINOFLAGELLATES
Dinoflagellates
 Mostly marine and photosynthetic
organisms appearing yellow, green, blue
or red depending on the pigment present.
 The cell wall has stiff plates made up of
cellulose on the outer surface.
 They are generally found with two
flagella: one longitudinal and the other
transverse, lying in the furrow of the two
wall plates.
 Red dinoflagellates, often undergo rapid
multiplication, making the sea appear
red.
 Toxins released by such large number
may affect and sometime even kill
surrounding marine life.
 1.3 EUGLENOIDS
 Majority of them are fresh water
organism found in stagnant water.
 Body is flexible due to the presence
of a protein rich layer, pellicle,
instead of cell wall.
 They have two flagella: a short and a
long one, helping in locomotion.
 They are autotrophic (photosynthetic)
in the presence of sunlight and
behave like heterotrophs (predation)
in the absence of sunlight.
 They contain most of the pigments
that are also found in higher plants.
 1.4 SLIME MOULDS
 These are saprophytic protists having
amoebic body shape that moves along
decaying substances engulfing nutrients
from them.
 Under suitable conditions , the cells and
nucleus fuse to form an aggregate called slime mould
plasmodium, that grows up to several feet.
 During unfavorable conditions, the
plasmodium differentiates and forms
fruiting bodies bearing spores at their tips.
 The spores have true walls and are
extremely resistant to outer harsh
conditions, surviving for many years and fruiting bodies
are dispersed by air currents.
 1.5 PROTOZOANS
 Protozoans are heterotrophs and exhibit
parasitic or predatory type of acquiring
nutrition.
 They are known to be primitive relatives of
animals and are present in four major groups:
Amoeboid Protozoans: These organisms live in
freshwater, sea water or moist soil. As their
name suggests, they capture their prey by
pseudopodia while a few others have parasitic
type of living (e.g. : Entamoeba). Marine forms
have silica shells on their surface.
Flagellated protozoans: They can either be free
living or can be parasitic and are observed to
have a flagella. Certain forms are also
pathogenic (e.g.: Trypanosoma)
 ciliated protozoans
(paramecium)
Ciliated protozoans: Actively moving and
aquatic animals that have thousands of
cilia present on their body. They have an
opening called gullet, that opens out on the
surface. The combined and coordinated
action of cilia drives food particles into the
gullet (e.g.: Paramecium).
Sporozoans: This includes diverse
organisms that have an infectious spore-
like stage in their life cycle. The most
notorious is Plasmodium (malarial
parasite) which causes malaria, a disease
which has a staggering effect on human
population.
 (3) Kingdom Fungi
 Thiskingdom fungi consists of multicellular and heterotrophic organisms, while some are
saprophytic (mushrooms, toadstools, etc.) others are parasitic (Trichophyton, Candida) in
nature.
 The body of fungi is covered with long, slender, thread-like structures called hyphae and a
network of hyphae is called mycelium and the cell wall of fungi is made up of chitin (a
fibrous substance made up of polysaccharide).
 Somehyphae are continuous tubes filled with multinucleated cytoplasm – these are called
coenocytic hyphae, and others have septae or cross walls in their hyphae.
 Theycan also live as symbionts – in association with algae as lichens and with roots of
higher plants as mycorrhiza.
 Reproduction in fungi can by vegetative means of fragmentation, fission and budding;
asexually by spores called conidia or sporangiospores or zoospores; and sexual reproduction
is by oospores, ascospores and basidiospores.
 The various spores are produced in distinct structures called fruiting bodies.
 The sexual cycle involves the following three steps:
(i) Fusion of protoplasm between two motile or non-motile gametes called plasmogamy.
(ii) Fusion of two nuclei called karyogamy.
(iii) Meiosis in zygote resulting 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).
 However, in other fungi (ascomycetes and basidiomycetes), an intervening dikaryotic
stage (n + n, i.e., two nuclei per cell) occurs; such a condition is called a dikaryon and
the phase is called dikaryophase of fungus. Later, the parental nuclei fuse and the cells
become diploid. The fungi form fruiting bodies in which reduction division occurs,
leading to formation of haploid spores.
 Basedon the morphology, mode of spore formation and fruiting bodies formed, the
kingdom fungi can be divided into the following classes:
i) Phycomycetes ii) Ascomycetes
Candida auris Rhizomycellium fungi
 PHYCOMYCETES

 These are the fungi which are found

growing on decaying wood in damp and
moist places or as obligatory parasites on
plants.
 These are aquatic organisms with aseptate Rhizopus (fungus on
bread)
and coenocytic mycelium .
 Asexual reproduction takes place by
zoospores (motile) or by aplanospores
(non-motile). These spores are
endogenously (within the body of the
fungus) produced in sporangium.
 When two similar (isogamous) or
dissimilar (anisogamous\oogamous)
gametes fuse they form a zygospore. Albugo candida
 ASCOMYCETES
Aspergillus
 These are unicellular or multicellular sac-like
organisms with septate and branched
mycelium.
 They can saprophytic, decomposers, parasitic
or coprophilous (growing on dung).
 The asexual spores are conidia, produced
exogenously on the special mycelium called
conidiophores. Conidia on germination Neurospora
produce mycelium.
 Sexual spores are called ascospores,
produced endogenously in sac like asci
(singular ascus) which are arranged in
different types of fruiting bodies called
ascocarps.
 BASIDIOMYCETES
 This class includes all forms of mushrooms,
bracket fungi or mushrooms.
 They grow in soils, on logs, tree stumps and
in living plant body as parasites and have
branched and septate type of mycelium.
 Vegetative reproduction is by
fragmentation, asexual spores and sex
organs are absent but plasmogamy occurs Puccinia sessilis
by the fusion of two somatic cells of
different strains or genotype. The resultant
structure is dikaryotic which ultimately
gives rise to basidium.
 Karyogamy and meiosis take place in the
basidium producing four basidiospores
which are exogenously produced on the
 DEUTEROMYCETES
 Commonly known as imperfect fungi
because only the asexual or vegetative
phases of these fungi are known, when the
sexual forms of these fungi were
discovered they were moved into classes
they rightly belong to.
 It is also possible that the asexual and Trichoderma
vegetative stage have been given one name
(and placed under deuteromycetes) and
the sexual stage another (and placed under
another class).
 The deuteromycetes reproduce only by
asexual spores known as conidia. The
mycelium is septate and branched.
Colletotrichum orbiculare
 Some members are saprophytes or parasites
 (4) Kingdom Plantae
 This kingdom includes all the eukaryotic, chlorophyllous containing organisms i.e. plants.
Almost all plant species are autotrophic due to the presence of chlorophyll, but certain
exceptions are there, like the insectivorous plants or parasites.
 Plant cells are eukaryotic structure with a cell wall layer made up of cellulose and observed with
the presence of a decentralised nucleus. The shape and presence of organelles differ from that of
an animal cell.
 Kingdom plantae is studied under 5 classes: Thallophyta, Bryophyta, Pteridophyte,
Gymnosperms and Angiosperms.
 Plants complete their lifecycle in two distinct phases: the diploid sporophytic and the haploid
gametophytic, which alternate with each other. The length and dependence of these phases
vary among different plant groups. This phenomenon in plants is called as alternation of
generation.
 Higher plants photosynthesize and produce food in the form of glucose and store it in the form
of starch.
 Plants are classified by the number of growing seasons they need to complete their life
cycle. These groups are generally annuals, biennials, and perennials.
 (5) Kingdom Animalia
 Organisms in this kingdom are multicellular and are characterised by eukaryotic cell,
absence of a cell wall and presence of a centralised nucleus.
 Allanimals are heterotrophic and depend directly or indirectly on the organisms of different
for food and nutrition.
 They have holozoic mode of nutrition (food is ingested), digestion is internal and the food is
stored in the form of glycogen or fat.
 Most
of the animals locomote, higher animals show sensory response and have neuromotor
mechanisms.
 They
follow a definite growth pattern and develop or grow into adults, many metamorphose,
many show camouflage and mimicry.
 Sexualreproduction is by copulation of male and female, followed by embryological
development.
 Animal kingdom is studied in different phylum the classification of which is based upon
their level of body organisation, symmetry, body plan, presence or absence of coelom,
segmentation, etc.
 VIRUSES, VIROIDS, PRIONS AND LICHENS
 In the five kingdom classification given by Whittaker there is no mention of lichens and certain
acellular organisms like Viruses, Viroids and Prions.
 Viruses never found their way into the 5 kingdom classification because they are not considered true
organisms in terms of cell structure.
 Viruses are non cellular structure which are characterises by having an inert form of crystalline
structure outside the cell and once inside the cell they take over the host cell to replicate themselves.
 The word ‘virus’ means poisonous fluid or venom; the first virus ever found was the Tobacco Mosaic
Virus, by Dmitri Ivanowsky in 1892 and these viruses were observed to be smaller than bacteria.
 M.W. Beijerinek (1898) later named these newly found pathogens as “virus” and the infected tobacco
extract was termed as Contagium vivum fluidum (infectious living fluid).
 W.M. Stanley (1935) showed that viruses could be crystallised and crystals consist largely of proteins.
They are inert outside their specific host cell and are obligate parasites.
 Viruses, other than a protein outer coat, have either RNA or DNA as their genetic material, but not
both together.
 A virusis a nucleoprotein and the genetic material is infectious. In general, viruses that infect
plants have single stranded RNA and viruses that infect animals have either single or double
stranded RNA or double stranded DNA.
 Bacteriophages are double stranded DNA, viruses that attack other bacteria.
 The protein coat called capsid made of small subunits called capsomeres, protects the nucleic
acid. These capsomeres are arranged in helical or polyhedral geometric forms.
 Virusesare pathogenic in nature, they are known to cause various diseases in human, plants
and animals like mumps, influenza, small pox, herpes, leaf rolling and curling, yellowing,
vein clearing and tobacco mosaic disease, etc.
 Viroidsare infectious free RNA i.e. a virus without the protein coat and were first discovered
by T.O. Diener in 1971, from potato spindle tuber disease where the paathogen was smaller
than the average size virus and after discovery it was recorded that the free RNA rna was of
low molecular wt.
 Prions
are names given to the infectious protein coat without the genetic material, having the
same size as that of a virus. The most notable diseases caused by prions are bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) commonly called mad cow disease in cattle and its
analogous variant Cr–Jacob disease (CJD) in humans.
 Virusand virion are two forms of microscopic, obligatory parasites. There are several
differences between the two.
 A virusis a microscopic, non-cellular structure that consists of a nucleic acid molecule covered
by a protein coat. It is an intracellular parasite. A virus is relatively larger than a virion and may
have different shapes. It may be helical, prolate, or icosahedral among others.
 Virionis the active, infectious form of a virus outside the host cell. It has both nucleic acid as
well as protein layers and is an extracellular parasite. Virion is relatively smaller than the virus
and is generally spheroidal in shape. Virions of most plant viruses are rod-shaped.
 Lichens are symbiotic associations i.e. mutually useful associations, between algae and fungi.
The algal component is known as phycobiont and fungal component as mycobiont, which
are autotrophic and heterotrophic, respectively. Algae prepare food for fungi and fungi
provide shelter and absorb mineral nutrients and water for its partner. So close is their
association that if one saw a lichen in nature one would never imagine that they had two
different organisms within them. Lichens are very good pollution indicators – they do not grow
in polluted areas.