BIOLOGICAL

CLASSIFICATION
Unit 1 Class XI
 INTRODUCTION

• What is biological classification?

 Scientific way
 Orderly arrangement
 Similarity
 Differences
 Easly observed
 Fundamental characters
HISTORY

• Aristotle: an early attempt

• Linnaeus: 2 Kingdom
• Haeckel: 3 Kingdom
• Copeland: 4 Kingdom
• R.H. Whittaker (1969): 5 Kingdom
• The three-domain system has also been proposed that
divides the Kingdom Monera into two domains,
leaving the remaining eukaryotic kingdoms in the
third domain and thereby a six kingdom classification
 PROBLEMS
• 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. This placed together groups which widely differed
in other characteristics. It brought together the prokaryotic bacteria and the blue green algae (cyanobacteria) with other groups
which were eukaryotic
• The classification did not differentiate between the heterotrophic group – fungi, and the autotrophic green plants, though they also
showed a characteristic difference in their walls composition – the fungi had chitin. in their walls while the green plants had a
cellulosic cell wall. When such characteristics were considered, the fungi were placed in a separate kingdom – Kingdom Fungi.
• All prokaryotic organisms were grouped together under Kingdom Monera and the unicellular eukaryotic organisms were placed in
Kingdom Protista. Kingdom Protista has brought together Chlamydomonas, Chlorella (earlier placed in Algae within Plants and
both having cell walls) with Paramoecium and Amoeba (which were earlier placed in the animal kingdom which lack cell wall)
• It has put together organisms which, in earlier classifications, were placed in different kingdoms. This happened because the criteria
for classification changed. This kind of changes will take place in the future too depending on the improvement in our
understanding of characteristics and evolutionary relationships. 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

• Prokaryotes only
• 2 major groups: Archaebacteria and
Eubacteria
• Eubacteria is further classified into
bacteria and cyanobacteria
• Other groups are mycoplasma,
rickettsiae and actinomycetes
 ARCHAEBACTERIA

• Most primitive
• Found in harsh habitats
• 3 major types: methanogens , halophiles and
thermoacidophiles
• Different cell wall structure
• Peptidoglycan is absent
• Survival in extreme conditions.
EUBACTERIA

• There are thousands of different eubacteria or ‘true bacteria’.

• They are characterised by the presence of a rigid cell wall, and if motile, a
flagellum.
• Most extensive metabolic diversity.
• Found everywhere
• Four categories of bacteria:

1. Spherical coccus
2. Rod shaped bacillus
3. Comma shaped vibrium
4. Spiral spirillum
 STRUCTURE
• Cell wall is characterised by peptidoglycan and teichoic
acid
• External to cell wall includes glycocalyx/ capsule,
flagella, fimbriae and pilli.
• Internal to cell wall include plasma membrane,
mesosome, nucleoid, cytoplasm etc.
• Both autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrition.
• Reproduce by fission
CHEMOSYNTHETIC AUTOTROPHIC

• Oxidise inorganic substance

• Role in recycling nutrients
 HETEROTROPHIC BACTERIA

• Most abundant
• Decomposers
• Making curd from milk
• Nitrogen fixation
CYANOBACTERIA

• Blue green algae

• Chlorophyll a
• Unicellular, colonial or filamentous
• Colonies surrounded by gelatinious sheath
• Form blooms in polluted water bodies
 MYCOPLASMA

• Smallest moneran
• Pleomorphic
• PPLOs
• Insensitives to antibiotics
• Survive without oxygen
• Jokers of plant kingdom
 KINGDOM PROTISTA

• Single celled eukaryotes

• Primarily aquatic
• Well defined nucleus
• Some have flagella or cilia
• Sexual and asexual
reproduction
CHRYSOPHYTES

• Diatoms and golden algae

• Fresh water and marine
• Microscopic and plankton
• Photosynthetic
DINOFLAGELLATES

• Mostly marine and

photosynthetic
• Appear red, yellow,
green, blue or brown
• Cell wall has stiff
cellulose plates
• Two flagella
• Red Dinoflagellates
 EUGLENOIDS

• Fresh water
• Found in stagnant water
• Protein rich layer
• No cell wall
• Photosynthetic in presence of sunlight and
heterotrophs without sunlight
• Eg: Euglena
 SLIME MOULDS

• Saprophytic
• Extremely resistant
• Spores are dispersed by air current
• Eg: Physarum
 PROTOZOANS

• Heterotrophs
• Live as predators or parasites
• Primitve realtives of animals
• Classified on basis of locomotory
organelles.
 AMOEBOID

• Fresh water, sea water or moist soil

• Marine forms have silica shells on their surface
• Move and capture food like amoeba
• Some are parasites like Entamoeba
 FLAGELLATED

• Free living or prasites

• Have flagella
• Eg: Trypanosoma causes
sleeping sickness
 CILLIATED

• Aquatic
• Actively moving organisms
• Presence of no. of cilia
• Eg: Pramecium
 SPOROZOANS

• Endoparasites
• Locomotary organs absent
• Infectious spore like stage in their life cycle
• Eg: Plasmodium
 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 mushrooms 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. Have you ever wondered why we keep food in the
refrigerator? Yes, it is to prevent food from going bad due to bacterial or fungal infections. 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, hence 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
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:
• Fusion of protoplasms between two motile or non-motile
gametes called plasmogamy.
• Fusion of two nuclei called karyogamy.
• 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. The
morphology of the mycelium, mode of spore formation and
fruiting bodies form the basis for the division of the
kingdom into various classes.
PHYCOMYCETES
Members of phycomycetes are found in
aquatic habitats and on decaying wood in
moist and damp places or as obligate
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
(Figure 2.5a), Rhizopus (the bread mould
mentioned earlier) and Albugo (the
parasitic fungi on mustard).
 ASCOMYCETES
Commonly known as sac-fungi, the ascomycetes are mostly multicellular, e.g., Penicillium, or rarelyunicellular, e.g., yeast (Saccharomyces). 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 (Figure 2.5b), Claviceps and Neurospora. Neurospora is used extensively in biochemical and genetic work. Many members like morels and truffles
are edible and are considered delicacies.
 BASIDIOMYCETES
Commonly known forms of basidiomycetes are mushrooms, bracket fungi 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. 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) (Figure 2.5c), Ustilago (smut) and Puccinia (rust fungus).
 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 vegetative stage have been given one name (and placed
under deuteromycetes) and the sexual stage another (and placed under another class). Later when the linkages were established, the fungi were correctly identified
and moved out of deuteromycetes. Once perfect (sexual) stages of members of dueteromycetes were discovered they were often moved to ascomycetes and
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 of litter and help in mineral cycling. Some examples are Alternaria, Colletotrichum and Trichoderma.
Kingdom Plantae includes all eukaryotic chlorophyll-containing organisms commonly called plants. A few members are partially
heterotrophic such as the insectivorous plants or parasites. Bladderwort and Venus fly trap are examples of insectivorous plants and Cuscuta
is a parasite. The plant cells have an eukaryotic structure with prominent chloroplasts and cell wall mainly made of cellulose. You will study
the eukaryotic cell structure in detail in Chapter 8. Plantae includes algae, bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms. Life
cycle of plants has two distinct phases – the diploid sporophytic and the haploid gametophytic – that alternate with each other. The lengths of
the haploid and diploid phases, and whether these phases are free– living or dependent on others, vary among different groups in plants. This
phenomenon is called alternation of generation
 KINGDOM ANIMALIA

This kingdom is characterised by heterotrophic eukaryotic organisms that are multicellular and their cells lack cell walls. They directly or indirectly depend on
plants for food. They digest their food in an internal cavity and store food reserves as glycogen or fat. Their mode of nutrition is holozoic – by ingestion of
food. They follow a definite growth pattern and grow into adults that have a definite shape and size. Higher forms show elaborate sensory and neuromotor
mechanism. Most of them are capable of locomotion. The sexual reproduction is by copulation of male and female followed by embryological development.
 VIRUSES, VIROIDS, PRIONS & LICHENS
In the five kingdom classification of Whittaker there is no mention of lichens and some acellular organisms like viruses, viroids and prions. These are
briefly introduced here. All of us who have suffered the ill effects of common cold or ‘flu’ know what effects viruses can have on us, even if we do
not associate it with our condition. Viruses did not find a place in classification since they are not considered truly ‘living’, if we understand living as
those organisms that have a cell structure. 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. Would you call viruses
living or non-living?
 VIRUS

Virus means venom or poisonous fluid. Dmitri Ivanowsky (1892) recognized certain microbes as causal organism of the mosaic disease of tobacco (Figure 2.6a). These
were found to be smaller than bacteria because they passed through bacteria-proof filters. M.W. Beijerinek (1898) demonstrated that the extract of the infected plants
of tobacco could cause infection in healthy plants and named the new pathogen “virus” and 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. A virus is 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. Bacterial viruses or bacteriophages (viruses that infect the bacteria) are usually double stranded DNA viruses (Figure
2.6b). 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 can be
mosaic formation, leaf rolling and curling, yellowing and vein clearing, dwarfing and stunted growth.
 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.
 LICHEN
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
CONCLUSION
THANK YOU