CH-2- Biological Classification

Aristotle- was the first to attempt a more scientific basis for classification.
(based on morphological characters) to classify plants into trees, shrubs, herbs and animals
having red blood and without red blood.
Two Kingdom Classification
Carolus Linnaeus gave two kingdom classification with plantae and animalia kingdoms that
included all plants and animals respectively.
Drawbacks of two kingdom Classification-
➢ It did not distinguish between the Eukaryotes and prokaryotes , Unicellular and
multicellular (for example chlamydomonas and spirogyra kept together),
Photosynthetic and non photosynthetic organisms.
➢ A need was also felt for including, besides gross morphology, other characteristics
like cell structure, nature of wall, mode of nutrition, habitat, methods of
reproduction, evolutionary relationships, etc.
➢ Hence classification systems for living organisms have undergone several changes
over time.
➢ Three Domain and Six Kingdom Classification-

➢ R.H Whittaker (1969) proposed five kingdom classification.

Kingdom Monera- (Bacteria)

➢ Bacteria occur almost everywhere They also live in extreme habitat such as hot
spring, desert, snow and deep oceans where very few other life forms can survive.
➢ Though the bacterial structure is very simple, they are very complex in behavior.
➢ Compared to many other organisms, bacteria as a group shows the most extensive
metabolic diversity.
Types of bacteria based on their shape-

1
Archaebacteria-
These bacteria live in some of the most harsh habitats facilitated by their
specific cell wall structure.
➢ Some of these bacteria live in extreme salty areas (halophiles),
➢ hot springs (thermoacidophiles) and
➢ marshy areas (methanogens).
➢ Methanogens are present in the gut of several ruminant animals such as
cows and buffaloes and they are responsible for the production of
methane (biogas) from the dung of these animals. They are also found in
marshy areas.
Eubacteria (true bacteria)-
➢ Autotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria
➢ Autotrophic bacteria- cyanobacteria- (also referred to as blue green
algae).
➢ The cyanobacteria are unicellular, colonial or filamentous, freshwater/
marine or terrestrial.
➢ They often form blooms in polluted water bodies.
➢ Some of these organisms can fix atmospheric nitrogen in specialised cells
called heterocysts, eg., Nostoc and anabaena, oscillatoria.

2
Chemosynthetic autotrophic bacteria oxidises various inorganic substances
such as nitrates, nitrites and ammonia and use the released energy for the ATP
production.
➢ They play a great role in recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus,
iron and sulphur.
➢ (mineral cycling or nutrient cycling)
Heterotrophic bacteria are the most abundant in nature.
➢ They are helpful in making curd from milk, Production of antibiotic.
➢ Fixing nitrogen in legume roots (used as biofertilisers). Eg., Rhizobium
➢ Many are decomposers, Some are pathogens causing harm to human
being and other living creatures eg., Cholera (Vibrio cholera), typhoid
(Salmonella typhii), tetnus (Clostridium tetnai), citrus canker (Xanthium
citri).
Reproduction-
➢ 1) Bacteria reproduces mainly by binary fission.
➢ 2) Sometimes, under unfavourable conditions they produce spores.
➢ 3) They also reproduce by a sort of sexual reproduction by adopting a
primitive type of DNA transfer from one bacterium to the other.
➢ In conjugation, DNA is transferred from one bacterium to another.
After the donor cell pulls itself close to the recipient using a structure
called a pilus, DNA is transferred between cells.

3
 ➢ Mycoplasma are organisms that completely lack cell wall. They are the
smallest living cells known and can survive without oxygen.
➢ Many mycoplasma are pathogenic in animals and plants. Causes lung
infection.
Kingdom Protista-
➢ All the organisms belonging to this kingdom are unicellular and
eukaryotic;
➢ Its boundaries are not well defined what may be a photosynthetic protist
to one biologist, is a plant or alga to another biologist.
➢ They are autotrophs or heterotrophs or mixotrophs.
➢ Protists reproduce asexually and sexually by a process involving cell
fusion and zygote formation.

Chrysophytes- includes diatoms and golden algae (desmids).

➢ They are found in fresh water / in marine water.
➢ They are microscopic and float passively in water currents
(phytoplanktons). Most of them are photosynthetic (chief producers of
the oceans).
➢ In diatoms the cell walls (embedded with indestructible silica) form two
thin overlapping shells, which fit together as in the soap box.
➢ Thus diatoms have left behind large amount of cell deposit, over billion
of years is referred to as ’diatomaceous earth’. Being gritty the soil is

4
 used in polishing, filtration of oils etc. Diatoms are the chief producers in
the ocean

Diatoms Dinoflagellate

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 (one lies longitudinally and the other transversely in a
furrow between the wall plates.
➢ Very often red dinoflagellates (Gonyaulax) undergo rapid multiplication
that they make the sea appear red (red tides). Red dinoflagellates
release toxin which may even kill other marine animals (fishes).

Euglenoids- (mixotrophic nutrition)

➢ Euglena is called as 'connecting link' between plant and animal, because
it has characteristics of both plant and animals.
➢ Majority of them are found in fresh water and brackish 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.
➢ The pigments of euglenoids are chlorophyl a, chlorophyll b, carotene
etc.

5
Slime moulds-
➢ Slime moulds are saprophytic protists. The body moves along decaying
twigs and leaves engulfing organic material.
➢ Under suitable condition, they may grow and spread over several feet.
➢ During unfavourable conditions they form fruiting bodies bearing spores
at their tips. The spore posses wall and they survive for many years.
➢ The spores are dispersed by air currents.
Protozoans-
➢ They are believed to be primitive relatives of animals. They are
heterotrophs (predators or parasites).
➢ Protozoans based on mode of locomotion are of 4 types-
Amoeboid protozoans-
➢ These organisms live in fresh water, sea water or moist soil.
➢ They move and capture their prey by putting out 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 diseases such as sleeping sickness, eg.,
Trypansoma
Ciliated protozoans-
➢ These are aquatic, actively moving organisms because of the presence of
thousands of cilia. They have a cavity (gullet) that opens outside.
➢ The coordinated movement of rows of cilia causes the water laden with
food to be steered into the gullet.
Sporozoans-

6
 ➢ This includes diverse organisms that have an infectious spore like stage
in their life cycle. Eg., plasmodium (malarial parasite) which causes
malaria.
Kingdom Fungi-
➢ They are Eukaryotic and multicellular (except yeast).
➢ Their body consists of long slender thread like structures, called hyphae,
which form a network, called mycelium.
➢ They may be septate or aseptate with multinucleated cytoplasm called
coenocytic hyphae.
➢ They have Chitinous cell wall
➢ All fungi are heterotrophic and non –photosynthetic. They may be
parasites, sarophytes or symbionts (in the roots of higher plants
(mycorrhizae) and in lichens). Characetristically spore formation
Characters Phycomycetes Ascomycetes Basidiomycetes Deuteromycetes
(Algal fungi) (Sac fungi) (Club fungi (Imperfect fungi)
or bracket
fungi or puff
balls)
Mode of Saprophytic or Saprophytic Saprohytic Saprophytic or
Nutrition as obligate (decomposers) (decomposer) parasite
parasite or parasite or or parasitic
coprophilous
Hyphae The mycelium is The mycelium is The mycelium is The mycelium is
aseptate and branched and branched and branched and
coenocytic. septate. septate. aseptate.
Mode of Asexual Asexual Asexual spores Asexual
Reproduction reproduction by reproduction by are not formed reproduction by
zoospores or conidia but vegetative conidia
aplanosore. (produced reproduction by
exogenously) fragmentation
fusion of is common.
gametes
Sexual Sexual spores The sex organ Sexual
reproduction by called are absent but reproduction is
fusion of ascopores plasmogamy is not known
gametes formed in asci brought by
(isogamous, within the fusion of two
anisogamous or fruiting bodies vegetative or
oogamous) called ascocarp somatic cells

7
 (produced which give rise
endogenously) to basidium
producing 4
basidiopores
(are produced
exogenously).
Examples Rhizopus, Aspergillus, Agaricus, Colletotrichum,
albugo, mustard claviceps, Ustilago and Alternaria and
Neurospora puccinia Trichoderma.
(used in
biochemical
and genetic
work), morels
and truffles

Viruses, Viroids and Lichens-

➢ In the five kingdom classification of Whittaker some organisms like
viruses, viroids and lichens are not mentioned.
➢ The viruses are non-cellular organisms that are characterised by having
an inert crystalline structure outside the living cell. Once they infect the
cell they take over the machinery of the host cell to replicate
themselves, killing the host.
➢ M.W. Beijerinek (1898) demonstrated that the extract of the infected
plants of tobacco could cause infection in healthy plants and called the
fluid as Contagium vivum fluidum.
➢ W.M Stanley showed that virus could be crystallised.
➢ Virus contains protein coat (capsid) and genetic material either DNA or
RNA. The protein coat capsid made up of small subunits called
capsomeres, protects the nucleic acid.
➢ The 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 usually double stranded DNA viruses.
Viroids-
➢ In 1971 T.O. Diener discovered a new infectious agent which was
smaller than viruses. It lacked protein coat that is found in viruses.
➢ It was found to be a free RNA.
➢ Disease- potato spindle fiber disease.

8
 ➢ Lichens-
➢ Lichens are symbiotic associations i.e., between algae and fungi.
➢ The algal component is known as phycobiont (autotrophic)and the
fungal component is known as mycobiont (heterotrophic
➢ Lichens are very good pollution indicators they don’t grow in polluted
areas.

********************************************************
********************************************************