9.1 4.1.2 five kingdom system

Five kingdom system

This is the most common way of grouping living things based on simple distinctive characteristics. Classification systems are always changing as newinformation is made available. Modern technologies such as electron microscopy make it possible to observe microscopic organisms in greater detail. Thecurrent system was developed by Robert H. Whittaker in 1969 and was built on the work of previous biologists such as Carolus Linnaeus. The highest groupingis called a kingdom .

Five kingdoms: http://www.tutorvista.com/content/biology/biology-iii/modern-classification /five-kingdom-classification.php

Bug scope: Images of microscopic organisms http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/

Neok12: Animals and wildlife videos http://www.neok12.com/Animals-Wildlife.htm

Encyclopedia of life: Images and explanations of terms http://eol.org/index

Living things can be classified into five major kingdoms:

Kingdom Monera (Bacteria)

Kingdom Protista

Kingdom Fungi

Kingdom Plantae

Kingdom Animalia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uJ8QeFRvJA&feature=related A video showing a brief summary of the five kingdoms

Distinctive features of the five kingdoms

Kingdom monera

• Prokaryotic, unicellular.
• No nuclear membrane or membrane bound organelles such as

chloroplasts, Golgi complex, mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum.

• Have a cell wall made without cellulose.
• Reproduction is mainly asexual by binary fission.
• Important examples: Archaea, cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), bacteria

Interesting fact: Bacteria are found everywhere and are the most numerous organisms on Earth. In a single gram of soil, there are about 40 millionbacterial cells. The human body also contains 10 times as many bacterial cells as human cells!!

Kingdom protista

• Eukaryotic, can be unicellular or simple multicellular.
• Reproduction can be asexual or sexual.
• Important examples: Plasmodium (causes malaria), amoeba, euglena

Kingdom fungi

• Eukaryotic, multicellular (some unicellular like yeasts).
• Have a cell wall made of chitin.
• Non-motile with long extensions called hyphae.
• Nutrition is heterotrophic: important as decomposers (saprophytes), can be parasitic.
• Store food as glycogen
• Reproduction is by spore formation (both asexual and sexual).
• Important examples: Mushrooms, Penicillium (a fungus which was used to make penicillin), bread mould

http://blog.ted.com/2008/05/06/paul_stamets/ A TED video on the many uses of Fungi

Kingdom plantae

• Eukaryotic, multicellular.
• Distinct cell wall made of cellulose.
• Have plastids and photosynthetic pigments such as chlorophyll.
• Non-motile.
• Nutrition is autotrophic (make their own food by photosynthesis).
• Sexual reproduction.
• Important examples: Green algae, mosses, ferns, conifers, flowering plants.

Kingdom animalia

• Eukaryotic and multicellular but have no cell wall or photosynthetic pigments
• Mostly motile
• Heterotrophic nutrition.
• Sexual or vegetative (asexual) reproduction
• Important examples: Porifera (sponges), Mammalia, Insects

Additional resource:

• Tree of life project: collaborative effort of biologists and nature enthusiasts from around the world providing information about biodiversity, thecharacteristics of different groups of organisms, and their evolutionary history ( phylogeny ). Link: http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html
• ARKive project: For pictures and information on a wide range of life forms
• http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/ : For high magnification pictures of insects using a scanning electron microscope.
• http://www.neok12.com/Microorganisms.htm : For interactive videos on microorganisms.

Projects and assignments:

1. Research one beneficial and one harmful application of one member from each kingdom, with examples from their use in South Africa. Students can be groupedinto smaller groups and each one is given one kingdom to research. (Use www.arkive.org as a research tool for your favourite animal or plant or http://bugscope.becnkman.uiuc.edu/ for nice pictures of insects). Results can be presented in the form of a poster.

2. Go to your nearest supermarket or garden and find one representative organism for each kingdom. Present this information by drawing diagrams.