2.

Biological classification

● Aristotle started the classification of organisms on scientific basis. He

classified the plants based on the morphology into Herbs, Shrubs and Trees.
● He also classified animals into two groups i.e, animals which have red blood
and animals which do not have red blood.
● Later Carolus Linnaeus gave 2 kingdom classification. He classified into
Kingdom: Plantae and Kingdom: Animalia.
Demerits of 2 kingdom classification:
● It does not distinguish between unicellular and multicellular, prokaryotes and
eukaryotes, photosynthetic and non photosynthetic.
● Many organisms do not fall into either category.
● It brought together bacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi, algae, mosses, ferns,
angiosperms under plant kingdom based on the presence of cell wall.
R.H. Whittaker (1969) proposed a Five Kingdom Classification. The kingdoms defined by
him were named Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia. The main criteria for
classification used by him include cell structure, body organisation, mode of nutrition,
reproduction and phylogenetic relationships.
Earlier classification systems included bacteria, blue green algae, fungi, mosses, ferns,
gymnosperms and the angiosperms under ‘Plants’. The character that unified this whole
kingdom was that all the organisms included had a cell wall in their cells.
1. Kingdom Monera: All unicellular prokaryotes
2. Kingdom Protista: All unicellular eukaryotes
3. Kingdom Mycota: all fungi
4. Kingdom Metaphyta (plantae): all plants
5. Kingdom Metazoa (animalia): all animals
Kingdom Monera
● Bacteria and cyanobacteria are the sole members of the Kingdom Monera.
● Bacteria are found everywhere
● Some are autotrophs, heterotrophs, parasites, symbionts etc.
● They lack membrane bound cell organelles.
● Cell wall is non cellulosic (polysaccharides+amino acid)
Bacteria classified into 4 groups based on shape. They are
1. Bacillus (pl. Bacilli) – Rod shaped bacteria.
2. Coccus (pl. Cocci)– spherical shaped bacteria.
3. Vibrium (pl. Vibrio) –comma shaped bacteria.
4. Spirillum (pl. Spirilla)–spiral shaped bacteria.
 Various groups of bacteria:
Archaebacteria.
● The bacteria which are found in extreme habitats are called archaebacteria.
● They differ from other bacteria by having different cell wall.
1. Halophiles: archaebacteria found in salty areas
2. Thermoacedophiles: archaebacteria found in hot springs
3. Methanogens: archaebacteria found in marshy areas
They are also found in the guts of cattle and responsible for the production of biogas from
their dung.
Eubacteria:
These are characterised by the presence of rigid cell wall. They are further classified into
autotrophs and heterotrophs
Photosynthetic autotrophs:
● They have chlorophyll and do photosynthesis
● They are unicellular, filamentous or colonial
● They are aquatic (fresh water/marine) or terrestrial forms
● Some can fix atmospheric nitrogen in specialized cells called heterocysts ( eg. Nostoc and
Anabaena)

Nostoc:A Filament

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 Chemosybthetic autotrophths
● These bacteria oxidise various inorganic substances such as nitrates, nitrites and ammonia
and use the released energy for their ATP production.
● They play a great role in recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, iron and sulphur.
Heterotrophic bacteria:
● Most abundant in nature.
● The majority are important decomposers. Many of them have a significant impact on human
affairs.
● They are helpful in making curd from milk, production of antibiotics, fixing nitrogen in legume
roots, etc.
● Some are pathogens cause diseases to human beings and plants Cholera, typhoid, tetanus,
citrus canker (in plants) are well known diseases caused by different bacteria.
Reproduction in Bacteria:
● Bacteria reproduce mainly by fission.
● Sometimes, 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:
● The Mycoplasma are organisms that completely lack a cell wall.
● They are the smallest living cells.
● They can survive without oxygen.
● Many mycoplasma are pathogenic in animals and plants.

Kingdom Protista
● All single-celled eukaryotes are placed under protista.
● Members of Protista are primarily aquatic.
● This kingdom forms a link with the others dealing with plants, animals and fungi.
● Being eukaryotes, the protistan cell body contains a well defined nucleus and other
membrane-bound organelles.
● Some have flagella or cilia.
● Protists reproduce asexually by cell fusion and sexually by zygote formation.
● The protistans are classified into Chrysophytes, Dinoflagellates, Euglenoids, Slime
moulds and Protozoans.

1. Chrysophytes
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● This group includes diatoms and golden algae (desmids).
● They are found in fresh water as well as in marine environments.
● They are microscopic and float passively in water currents (plankton). Most of them are
photosynthetic.
● In diatoms the cell walls form two thin overlapping shells, which fit together as in a soap box.
● The walls are embedded with silica and thus the walls are indestructible.
● diatoms have left behind large amount of cell wall deposits in their habitat; this accumulation
over billions of years is referred to as ‘diatomaceous earth’.
● Being gritty this soil is used in polishing, filtration of oils and syrups.
● Diatoms are the chief ‘producers’ in the oceans.

2. Dinoflagellates
● These organisms are mostly marine and photosynthetic.
● They appear yellow, green, brown, blue or red depending on the main pigments present in
their cells.
● The cell wall has stiff cellulose plates on the outer surface.
● Most of them have two flagella.
● red dinoflagellates (Example: Gonyaulax) undergo rapid multiplication that they make the sea
appear red. This is called red tide.
● Toxins released by such large numbers may even kill other marine animals such as fishes.

3. Euglenoids:
● Majority of them are fresh water organisms found in stagnant water.
● Instead of a cell wall, they have a protein rich layer called pellicle which makes their body
flexible.
● They have two flagella, a short and a long one.
● Though they are photosynthetic in the presence of sunlight, when deprived of sunlight they
behave like heterotrophs by predating on other smaller organisms.
● Interestingly, the pigments of euglenoids are identical to those present in higher plants.
Example: Euglena.

4. Slime Moulds
● Slime moulds are saprophytic protists.
● The body moves along decaying twigs and leaves engulfing organic material.
● Under suitable conditions, they form an aggregation called plasmodium which may grow
and spread over several feet.
● During unfavourable conditions, the plasmodium differentiates and forms fruiting bodies
bearing spores at their tips.
● The spores are extremely resistant and survive for many years, even under adverse
conditions.
● The spores are dispersed by air currents.

5. Protozoans
● All protozoans are heterotrophs and live as predators or parasites.
● They are believed to be primitive relatives of animals.
● There are four major groups of protozoans.
Amoeboid protozoans:
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● These organisms live in fresh water, sea water or moist soil.
● They move and capture their prey by pseudopodia as in Amoeba.
● Marine forms have silica shells on their surface. Some of them such as Entamoeba are
parasites.
Flagellated protozoans:
● The members of this group are either free-living or parasitic.
● They have flagella.
● The parasitic forms cause diaseases such as sleeping sickness. Example: Trypanosoma.
Ciliated protozoans:
● These are aquatic, actively moving organisms because of the presence of thousands of cilia.
● They have a cavity (gullet) that opens to the outside of the cell surface.
● The coordinated movement of rows of cilia causes the water laden with food to be steered
into the gullet. Example: Paramoecium.
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.
Kingdom Fungi
● The fungi constitute a unique kingdom of heterotrophic organisms.
● They show a great diversity in morphology and habitat. You must have seen fungi on moist
bread and rotten fruits. The common mushroom you eat and toadstools are also fungi.
White spots seen on mustard leaves are due to a parasitic fungus.
● Some unicellular fungi, e.g., yeast are used to make bread and beer.
● Other fungi cause diseases in plants and animals; wheat rust-causing Puccinia is an
important example. Some are the source of antibiotics, e.g., Penicillium.
● Fungi are cosmopolitan and occur in air, water, soil and on animals and plants.
● They prefer to grow in warm and humid places.
● With the exception of 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 filled 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.
● Most fungi are heterotrophic and absorb soluble organic matter from dead substrates and
hence are called saprophytes.
● Those that depend on living plants and animals are called parasites.
● They can also live as symbionts – in association with algae as lichens and with roots of
higher plants as mycorrhiza.
● Reproduction in fungi can take place by vegetative means –fragmentation, fission and
budding. Asexual reproduction is 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 protoplasms between two motile or non-motile gametes called plasmogamy.
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● (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.
Based on the morphology of the mycelium, mode of spore formation and fruiting bodies the
kingdom fungi is classified into various classes.
1. Phycomycetes
● Found in aquatic habitats and on decaying wood in moist and damp places or as parasites
on plants.
● The mycelium is aseptate and coenocytic.
● Asexual reproduction takes place by zoospores (motile) or by aplanospores (non-motile).
● These spores are endogenously produced in sporangium.
● A zygospore is formed by fusion of two gametes.
● These gametes are similar in morphology (isogamous) or dissimilar (anisogamous or
oogamous).
● Some common examples are Mucor, Rhizopus (bread mould) and Albugo (the parasitic
fungi on mustard).
2. Ascomycetes:
● Commonly known as sac-fungi,
● mostly multicellular, e.g., Penicillium, or rarely unicellular (yeast)
● They are saprophytic, decomposers, parasitic or coprophilous (growing on dung).
● Mycelium is branched and septate.
● The asexual spores are conidia produced exogenously on the special mycelium called
conidiophores. Conidia on germination produce mycelium.
● Sexual spores are called ascospores which are produced endogenously in sac like asci
(singular ascus).
● These asci are arranged in different types of fruiting bodies called ascocarps. Some
examples are Aspergillus, Claviceps and Neurospora.
● Neurospora is used extensively in biochemical and genetic work. Many members like morels
and truffles are edible and are considered delicacies.
3. Basidiomycetes
● Commonly known forms of basidiomycetes are mushrooms, bracketfungi or puffballs.
● They grow in soil, on logs and tree stumps and in living plant bodies as parasites, e.g., rusts
and 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 is brought about by fusion of two vegetative or
somatic cells of different strains or genotypes. The resultant structure is dikaryotic which
ultimately gives rise to basidium.

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● Karyogamy and meiosis take place in the basidium producing four basidiospores. The
basidiospores are exogenously produced on the basidium (pl.: basidia).
● The basidia are arranged in fruiting bodies called basidiocarps.
● Some common members are 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. When the sexual forms of these fungi were discovered they are
moved into either ascomycetes or basidiomycetes.
● The deuteromycetes reproduce only by asexual spores known as conidia.
● The mycelium is septate and branched.
● Some members are saprophytes or parasites while a large number of them are
decomposers.
● Some examples are Alternaria, Colletotrichum and Trichoderma.
Viruses, Viroids, Prions and Lichens:
● Viruses did not find a place in classification since they are not considered truly ‘living’,
● The viruses are non-cellular organisms that are characterised by having an inert crystalline
structure outside the living cell.
● Once they infect a cell they take over the machinery of the host cell to replicate themselves,
killing the host.
● The name virus that means venom or poisonous fluid was given by Pasteur. Dmitri
Ivanowsky (1892) recognised certain microbes as causal organism of the mosaic disease
of tobacco.
● These were found to be smaller than bacteria because they passed through bacteria-proof
filters.
● M.W. Beijerinek (1898) called the fluid 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.
● Viruses are obligate parasites.
● In addition to proteins, viruses also contain genetic material that could be either RNA or
DNA.
● No virus contains both RNA and DNA.
● Viruses that infect plants (Plant viruses) have single stranded RNA and viruses that infect
animals (Animal viruses) have either single or double stranded RNA or double stranded
DNA.
● Bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) have double stranded DNA.
● 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.
● Viruses cause diseases like mumps, small pox, herpes and influenza. AIDS in humans is
also caused by a virus.
● In plants, the symptoms of viral infection includes:
o mosaic formation,
o leaf rolling and curling,
o yellowing and vein clearing,
o dwarfing and stunted growth.

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 Viroids :
● In 1971, T.O. Diener discovered a new infectious agent that was smaller than viruses and
caused potato spindle tuber disease.
● It was found to be a free RNA; it lacked the protein coat that is found in viruses, hence the
name viroid.
● The RNA of the viroid was of low molecular weight.
Prions :
● In modern medicine certain infectious neurological diseases were found to be transmitted by
an agent consisting of abnormally folded protein.
● The agent was similar in size to viruses. These agents were called prions.
● 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.

Lichens:
● Lichens are symbiotic 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.
● Lichens are very good pollution indicators – they do not grow in polluted areas.