Diversity in living organism
Lecture-4
Kingdom monera
It is the kingdom for prokaryotes which includes bacteria and blue- green
algae.
Characteristics of monera:
i. All monerans are prokaryotes, unicellular, extremely small and simplest
organisms.
ii. Cell wall is present (may absent in some monerans).
iii. Monerans may be autotrophic or heterotrophic.
iv. Their cells do not contain membrane bound organelles like mitochondria,
Golgi body, plastids etc…
Note: Autotrophic monerans perform chemosynthesis.
Note: All nitrogen fixing organism belong to kingdom monera.
Monerans are classified into two groups:
I. Archaebacteria
The prokaryotic bacteria which are generally autotrophic and do not
contain peptidoglycan cell wall (cell wall is made up of pseudomurein).
Archaebacteria are found in extreme climate where no other organisms
can survive.
They are anaerobic.
Archaebacteria are divided into three groups:
a) Methanogens: The archaebacterial which produce methane gas as a
result of their metabolic activities.
Note: Methanogens die in the presence of oxygen, so they always live in the
environment where np oxygen is present.
b) Thermoacidophiles: The archaebacteria which live in extremely hot and
acidic environment.
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c) Halophiles: The archaebacteria which live in very salty and alkaline
environment.
Note: Archaebacteria are the most primitive organisms of the earth.
II. Eubacteria
The prokaryotic bacteria which have cell wall made of peptidoglycan and
which contain ribosomes are called eubacteria.
Eubacteria are found everywhere on the earth.
Mycoplasmas lack cell wall.
Eubacteria are of two types:
a) Gram-positive bacteria: Those eubacteria whose cell wall has thick layer of
peptidoglycan and give positive result for gram stain test.
Example: Streptococcus, pneumonia etc…
b) Gram- negative bacteria: Those eubacteria whose cell wall has thin layer of
peptidoglycan and give negative result for gram stain test
Note: Outer membrane of gram- negative bacteria contain a unique
component lipopolysaccharide, which make it immune.
Example: E.coli
Gram- negative bacteria are harder to kill than gram-positive bacteria. So,
gram- negative bacteria is more dangerous.
Bacteria vary in shape like spherical (Coccus), rod shaped (Bacillus), spiral
(Spirillum) and comma shaped (Vibrio).
Note: Coccus are the smallest bacteria.
Bacteria may found freely or in colony.
Blue- green algae also called cyanobacteria are free living bacteria which
perform photosynthesis.
Antibiotics are used to cure disease caused by bacteria.
Penicillin works best on gram-positive bacteria while Cephalosporins
works best on gram- negative bacteria and Streptomycin works on both.
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