PLANTS AND KINGDOMS OF LIFE

Plants are man’s prime companions in this

universe, being the source of food and energy,
shelter and clothing, drugs and beverages,
oxygen and aesthetic environment, and as such
they have been the dominant component of his
taxonomic activity through the ages.
 Two Kingdom System
• The living organisms were originally grouped
into two kingdoms.
• Aristotle divided all living things between
plants, which generally do not move or have
sensory organs, and animals.
• Linnaeus in his Systema naturae published in
1735 placed them under Animalia (Animals)
and Vegetabilia (Plants)
• as two distinct kingdoms (Linnaeus placed
minerals in the third kingdom Mineralia).
• Linnaeus divided each kingdom into classes, later
grouped into phyla for animals and divisions for
plants.
• When single-celled organisms were first
discovered, they were split between the two
kingdoms: mobile forms in the animal phylum
Protozoa, and colored algae and bacteria in the
plant division Thallophyta or Protophyta.
• As a result, Ernst Haeckel (1866) suggested
creating a third kingdom Protista for them,
although this was not very popular until
relatively recently (sometimes also known as
Protoctista).
• Haeckel recognized three kingdoms: Protista,
Plantae and Animalia.
 Two Empires Three Kingdoms
• The subsequent discovery that bacteria are
radically different from other organisms in lacking
a nucleus, led Chatton (1937) to propose a
division of life into two empires: organisms with
a nucleus in Eukaryota and organisms without in
Prokaryota.
• Prokaryotes do not have a nucleus, mitochondria
or any other membrane bound organelles.
• In other words neither their DNA nor any other of
their metabolic functions are collected together
in a discrete membrane enclosed area.
• Eukaryotes have a separate membrane bound nucleus,
numerous mitochondria and other organelles such as
the Golgi Body within each of their cells.
• These areas are separated off from the main mass of
the cell’s cytoplasm by their own membrane in order to
allow them to be more specialized.
• The nucleus contains all the Eukaryote cell DNA, which
gets organized into distinct chromosomes during the
process of mitosis and meiosis.
• The energy is generated in mitochondria.
• The exception to this rule are red blood cells
which have no nucleus and do not live very
long.
• Chatton’s proposal, however, was not taken up
immediately, because another classification
was proposed by Herbert Copeland (1938),
who gave the prokaryotes a separate
kingdom, originally called Mycota but later
referred to as Monera or Bacteria.
• Copeland later on (1956) proposed a four-
kingdom system placing all eukaryotes other
than animals and plants in the kingdom
Protoctista, thus recognizing four kingdoms
Monera, Protoctista, Plantae and Animalia.
• The importance of grouping these kingdoms in
two empires, as suggested earlier by Chatton
was popularized by Stanier and van Niel
(1962), and soon became widely accepted.
 Five Kingdom System
• American biologist Robert H. Whittaker (1969) proposed
the removal of fungi into a separate kingdom thus
establishing a five kingdom system recognizing Monera,
Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia as distinct kingdoms.
• The fungi like plants have a distinct cell wall but like animals
lack autotrophic mode of nutrition. They, however, unlike
animals draw nutrition from decomposition of organic
matter, have cell wall reinforced with chitin, cell
membranes containing ergosterol instead of cholesterol
and have a unique biosynthetic pathway for lysine.
• The classification was followed widely in textbooks.
 Six or Seven Kingdoms?
• Subsequent research concerning the organisms
previously known as archebacteria has led to the
recognition that these creatures form an entirely
distinct kingdom Archaea.
• These include anaerobic bacteria found in harsh
oxygen-free conditions and are genetically and
metabolically completely different from other, oxygen-
breathing organisms.
• These bacteria, called Archaebacteria, or simply
Archaea, are said to be “living fossils” that have
survived since the planet’s very early ages, before the
Earth’s atmosphere even had free oxygen.
• This together with the emphasis on phylogeny
requiring groups to be monophyletic resulted in a six
kingdom system proposed by Carl Woese et al. (1977).
• They grouped Archaebacteria and Eubacteria under
Prokaryotes and rest of the four kingdoms Protista,
Fungi, Plantae and Animalia under Eukaryotes.
• They subsequently (1990) grouped these kingdoms into
three domains Bacteria (containing Eubacteria),
Archaea (containing Archaebacteria) and Eukarya
(containing Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia).
• Margulis and Schwartz (1998) proposed term
superkingdom for domains and recognized two
superkingdoms: Prokarya (Prokaryotae) and
Eukarya (Eukaryotae).
• Former included single kingdom Bacteria
(Monera) divided into two subkingdoms Archaea
and Eubacteria.
• Eukarya was divided into four kingdoms:
Protoctista (Protista), Animalia, Plantae and
Fungi.
• Several recent authors have attempted to
recognize seventh kingdom of living organisms,
but they differ in their treatment. Ross
• (2002, 2005) recognized Archaebacteria and
Eubacteria as separate kingdoms, named as
Protomonera and Monera, respectively again
under separate superkingdoms (domains of
earlier authors) Archaebacteriae and Eubacteria.
• He added seventh kingdom Myxomycophyta of
slime moulds under superkingdom Eukaryotes.
• Two additional superkingdoms of extinct organisms
Progenotes (first cells) and Urkaryotes (prokaryotic
cells that became eukaryotes) were added:
• Superkingdom Progenotes....
• ....first cells now extinct
• Superkingdom Archaebacteriae
– Kingdom Protomonera...archaic bacteria
• Superkingdom Eubacteria
– Kingdom Monera........bacteria
• Superkingdom Urkaryotes ...prokaryoti cells that
became eukaryotes
Seven kingdoms of life and their possible phylogeny
(after Patterson & Sogin 1992).
• Superkingdom Eukaryotes
• ...cells with nuclei
• Kingdom Protista..........protozoans
• Kingdom Myxomycophyta...slime molds
• Kingdom Plantae............plants
• Kingdom Fungi..............fungi
• Kingdom Animalia...........animals
• Patterson & Sogin (1992; Figure 1.1) recognized
seven kingdoms, but included slime moulds
under Protozoa (Protista) and instead established
Chromista (diatoms) as seventh kingdom.
• Interestingly the traditional algae now find
themselves distributed in three different
kingdoms: eubacterial prokaryotes (the blue-
green cyanobacteria), chromistans (diatoms,
kelps), and protozoans (green algae, red algae,
dinoflagellates, euglenids).
Cavalier-Smith (1981) suggested that Eukaryotes
can be classified into nine kingdoms each defined in
terms of a unique constellation of cell structures.
Five kingdoms have plate-like mitochondrial cristae:
(1) Eufungi (the non-ciliated fungi, which unlike the
other eight kingdoms have unstacked Golgi
cisternae),
(2) Ciliofungi (the posteriorly ciliated fungi),
(3) Animalia (Animals, sponges, mesozoa, and
choanociliates; phagotrophs with basically
posterior ciliation),
(4) Biliphyta (Non-phagotrophic, phycobilisomecontaining,
algae; i.e. the Glaucophyceae and Rhodophyceae),
(5) Viridiplantae (Nonphagotrophic green plants, with starch-
containing plastids).
(6) Euglenozoa, has disc-shaped cristae and an intraciliary
dense rod and may be phagotrophic and/or phototrophic
with plastids with three-membraned envelopes. Kingdom
(7) Cryptophyta, has flattened tubular cristae, tubular
mastigonemes on both cilia, and starch in the
compartment between the plastid endoplasmic reticulum
and the plastid envelope; their plastids, if present, have
phycobilins inside the paired thylakoids and chlorophyll c2.
• Kingdom (8), the Chromophyta, has tubular cristae,
together with tubular mastigonemes on one anterior
cilium and/or a plastid endoplasmic reticulum and
chlorophyll c1 + c2.
• Members of the ninth kingdom,the Protozoa, are
mainly phagotrophic, and have tubular or vesicular
cristae (or lack mitochondria altogether), and lack
tubular mastigonemes on their (primitively anterior)
cilia; plastids if present have three-envelop
membranes, chlorophyll c2, and no internal starch, and
a plastid endoplasmic reticulum is absent.
• Kingdoms 4-9 are primitively anteriorly biciliate.
• A simpler system of five kingdoms suitable for very elementary
teaching is possible by grouping the photosynthetic and fungal
kingdoms in pairs.
• It was suggested that Various compromises are possible between
the nine and five kingdoms systems;
• it is suggested that the best one for general scientific use is a
system of seven kingdoms in which the Eufungi and Ciliofungi
become subkingdoms of the Kingdom Fungi, and the Cryptophyta
and Chromophyta subkingdoms of the Kingdom Chromista;
• the Fungi, Viridiplantae, Biliphyta, and Chromista can be subject to
the Botanical Code of Nomenclature, while the Zoological Code can
govern the Kingdoms Animalia, Protozoa and Euglenozoa.
• These 9 kingdoms together with two or one kingdom of
prokaryotes total eleven or ten kingdoms of life.
• Subsequently, however, Cavalier-Smith (1998, 2000, 2004)
reverted back to six kingdom classification recognizing
Bacteria, Protozoa, Animalia, Fungi, Plantae and Chromista
under two empires Prokaryota and Eukaryota.
• Prokaryotes constitute a single kingdom, Bacteria, here
divided into two new subkingdoms:
– Negibacteria, with a cell envelope of two distinct genetic
membranes, and
– Unibacteria, comprising the phyla Archaebacteria and
Posibacteria. Outline of the classification is as under:
 Empire Prokaryota
Kingdom Bacteria
• Subkingdom Negibacteria (phyla
– Eobacteria, Sphingobacteria,
– Spirochaetae, Proteobacteria,
– Planctobacteria, Cyanobacteria)
• Subkingdom Unibacteria (phyla
– Posibacteria, Archaebacteria)
 Empire Eukaryota
Kingdom Protozoa
– Subkingdom Sarcomastigota (phyla Amoebozoa, Choanozoa)
– Subkingdom Biciliata
• Kingdom Animalia (Myxozoa and 21 other phyla)
• Kingdom Fungi (phyla Archemycota, Microsporidia,
Ascomycota, Basidiomycota)
• Kingdom Plantae
– Subkingdom Biliphyta (phyla Glaucophyta, Rhodophyta)
– Subkingdom Viridaeplantae (phyla Chlorophyta, Bryophyta,
Tracheophyta)
• Kingdom Chromista
– Subkingdom Cryptista (phylum Cryptista: cryptophytes,
goniomonads, katablepharids)
– Subkingdom Chromobiota
• The name archaebacteria seems to be confusing.
• They were so named because they were thought
to be the most ancient (Greek ‘archaio’ meaning
ancient) and sometimes labelled as living fossils,
since they can survive in anaerobic conditions
(methanogens which use hydrogen gas to reduce
carbon dioxide to methane gas), high
temperatures (thermophiles, which can survive in
temperatures of up to 80 degree C), or salty
places (halophiles).
• They differ from bacteria in having methionine as
aminoacid that initiates protein synthesis as
against formyl-methionine in bacteria, presence
of introns in some genes, having several different
RNA polymerases as against one in bacteria,
absence of peptidoglycan in cell wall, and growth
not inhibited by antibiotics like streptomycin and
chloramphenicol.
• In several of these respects archaebacteria are
more similar to eukaryotes.
• Bacteria are thought to have diverged early from the
evolutionary line (the clade neomura, with many
common characters, notably obligately co-translational
secretion of N-linked glycoproteins, signal recognition
particle with 7S RNA and translation-arrest domain,
protein-spliced tRNA introns, eightsubunit chaperonin,
prefoldin, core histones, small nucleolar
ribonucleoproteins (snoRNPs), exosomes and similar
replication, repair, transcription and translation
machinery) that gave rise to archaebacteria and
eukaryotes.
• It is, as such more appropriate to call archaebacteria as
metabacteria.
The further shift from archaebacteria to Eukaryotes
involved the transformation of circular DNA into a
linear DNA bound with histones, formation of
membrane bound nucleus enclosing chromosomes,
development of mitosis, occurrence of meiosis in
sexually reproducing organisms, appearance of
membrane bound organelles such as endoplasmic
reticulum, golgi bodies and lysosomes, appearance
of cytoskeletal elements like actin, myosin and
tubulin, and the formation of mitochondria through
endosymbiosis.
• A major shift in this eukaryotic line which
excluded animal and fungi, involved the
development of chloroplast by an eukaryotic
cell engulfing a photosynthetic bacterial cell
(probably a cyanobacterium).
• The bacterial cell continued to live and
multiply inside the eukaryotic cell, provided
high energy products, and in turn received a
suitable environment to live in.
• The two thus shared endosymbiosis. Over a
period of time the bacterial cell lost ability to live
independently, some of the bacterial genes
getting transferred to eukaryotic host cell, making
the two biochemically interdependent.
• Chloroplast evolution in Euglenoids and
Dinoflagellates occurred through secondary
endosymbiosis, wherein eukaryotic cell engulfed
an eukaryotic cell containing a chloroplast.
 The Plant Kingdom
It is now universally agreed that members of the
plant kingdom include, without doubt the green
algae, liverworts and mosses, pteri-dophytes,
gymnosperms and finally the angiosperms, the
largest group of plants. All these plants share a
green chloroplast. Red algae, Brown algae and
Glaucophytes, latter two together known as
stramenophiles, also belong to this kingdom. All
these groups share the presence of a
chloroplast.
All green plants share a green chloroplast with
chlorophyll b, chlorophyll a, thylakoids and
grana, and starch as storage food. Evolution of
cuticle combined with gametangia and embryo
characterizes embryophytes, including
bryophytes, pteridophytes and seed plants.
The development of vascular tissue of phloem and
xylem, and independent sporophyte characterize
tracheophytes including pteridophytes and seed
plants.
Secondary growth resulting in the formation of
wood and seed habit differentiates seed plants.
The final evolution of a distinct flower, carpels and
stamens, together with vessels and sieve tubes set
apart the angiosperms, the most highly evolved
group of plants.
The species of living organisms on this planet
include
Monera-10,000;
Protista-250,000;
Fungi-100,000;
Plantae-279,000;
Animalia-1,130,000.
Nearly three fourth of animals are insects
(800,0000) and of these more than one third
beetles (300,000).
Amongst plants nearly 15,000 species belong to
usually overlooked mosses and liverworts,
10,000 ferns and their allies,
820 to gymnosperms and
253,000 to angiosperms (belonging to about 485
families and 13,372 genera), considered to be the
most recent and vigorous group of plants that have
occurred on earth.
Angiosperms occupy the majority of the terrestrial
space on earth, and are the major components of
the world’s vegetation.
• Brazil and Colombia, both located in the
tropics, are considered to be countries with
the most diverse angiosperms floras and
which rank first and second.
• China, even though the main part of her land
is not located in the tropics, the number of
her angiosperms still occupies the third place
in the world, and has approximately 300
families, 3, 100 genera and 30,000 species.