BY 124 Chapter 29 Notes

Plant Diversity
Plants are eukaryotic, multicellular, photosynthetic autotrophs
Pigment comes from chlorophyll a & b as well as carotenoid
Glucose stored as starch; cell wall made up of cellulose
Consist of mitochondria and chloroplast
large central vacuole surrounded by tonoplast membrane
Evolution of Land Plants
- appeared 500 million years ago
- likely evolved from ancestral algae.
- Closest relatives are charopycean green algae (charophytes)

Plants evolved to move out of water onto land

- Get water by roots
- Overcome evaporation by cuticle or waxy covering
- Plants used stomata to take in CO2 and exchange gasses.
- Plants overcome gravity with vascular system
- lignin found in secondary cell walls for structure
- Plants begin to use pollen to reproduce
- insects and wind used to spread pollen
- Zygote kept in archegonia to keep from drying out
- sporopollenin- polymer found in charophytes to keep the exposed
zygote from drying out.
- Vascular system to move nutrients through plants
- xylem moves water up
- phloem moves sugar throughout plant
- Pigments to overcome UV damage
- Defenses to protect against predators
- bad taste
- poison
- thorns

shared characteristics between land plants and Charophytes:

1. Rings of cellulose synthesizing proteins.
- Circular rings protein in plasma membrane to make cellulose found in
cell walls. Non-charophytes have linear sets of protein.
2. Peroxizome enzymes
- Enzymes that minimize loss of organic materials in photorespiration
3. Flagellated sperm
- Structures of sperm in both are very similar
4. Formation of phragmoplast
- microtubules that are responsible for making cell plate in plants
- cell plate turns into cell wall
- phragmoplast is a precursor of the cell plate

Differences between charophytes and land plants:

1. Apical meristem
- Regions of cell division that allow elongation
- found on shoot and root of plant
2. Alternation of generation in land plants:
all plants alternate between:
a. Gametophyte- multicellular haploid cells (N)
b. Sporophyte- multicellular diploid cells (2N)
dominant generation- generation where plant spends most of time
(Figure 29.5)
3. Spores are produces in sporangium
sporocyte- diploid mother cells that produces spores for sporophyte
to release spores
- other cells of sporangium protect spores
- spores in plants have sporopollenin walls but spores in
charophyceans do not
(sporophyte>sporophyll> sporangium>sporocyte>spores)
4. Multicellular Gametangia in land plants
- antheridia- male gametangia that produces sperm
- archegonia- female gametangia where eggs are produces and
fertilization occurs
- gametes produced by mitosis
- sperm go to archegonia and fertilize
5. Multicellular dependent Embryos in Plants
-called embryophytes
- embryo stays in archegonia
- placental transfer cells gives food to embryo

Major trend in reduction of haploid generation and dominance of diploid

- FIGURE 29.7
4 main groups of land plants
1. Bryophytes: mosses (non vascular land plants)
2. Seedless vascular plants (ferns)
3. Gymnosperms: conifers
4. Angiosperms (flowering plants)
Nonvascular plants
1. Bryophytes
- No vascular system
o So they dont grow tall

o Few cells thick (water moves only by simple diffusion)

dominant haploid gametophyte generation
no true roots, stems, or leaves
still have flagellated sperm so need moist environment
attached to soil by rhizoids, (root-like structures that break loose rock to
form new soil) they act as an anchor and not involve in water transport
Carbon resorvior which stabilizes amount of CO2 amount in atmosphere
a. Phylum Bryophyta
- Mosses
- Use imbibition and osmosis to transport water because no
vascular system
- depend on gametophyte for nutrition
b. Phylum Hepatphyta
- Liverworts
- Flat structures
- Can also resporduce asexually by gemmae
c. Phylum Anthocerophyta
- hornworts

Life cycle of moss

-

begins in gametophyte generation

male + female gametophyte
o antheridia: male, produces sperm
o archegonia: female, produces eggs
fertilization occurs in archegonia
o sperm swims to archegonia to fertilize
results in diploid zygote which goes through mitosis into young
sporophyte

Vascular plants
- Tracheophytes
- Dominant diploid sporophyte generation
- Have vascular system thats best adapted to land
o Phloem and xylem help support the structure of plants
o Xylem when mature, carry water and mineral, only a pipe of cell
wall
- True roots, stems, and leaves
- Dead plant cells can still have role in plant
o Ex. dead cell leaves behind cell wall that acts as open pipeline in
plant
- Sporophyll- modified leaves that bear sporangia (little dots under fern
leaves).
- Homosorpous- one sporangium that produces one spore that develops into
a bisexual gametophyte that produces both sperm and egg
- Heterosporous- two sporangia that produces two types of spores:

1. megaspore: develops female gametophyte

2. microspore: develops male gametophyte
all seed plants are heterosporous while seedless can be either or

Seedless Vascular Plants

- Devonian and carboniferous era
a. Phylum Lycophyta
- called lychophytes
- true roots and leaves
- spike moss, club moss, ground pine
- appeared dominant as trees in Devonian and carboniferous era
- rhizomes- anchoring root, horizontal stem
- strobili-sporangia club like instead of leaves
b. Phylum Pterophyta
- Called Pterophytes
- Ferns:
o Fiddle heads found in new ferns; frond for leaves
o Reproduce with sporangia
o Fiddlehead growing leaves
o Spores are homosporous and develop into prothallus (heart
shape)
o Symbiotic relationship with fungi for nutrients
- Horsetails equisetum
o True root and stem
o Homosporous and flagellated sperm
o Small photosynthetic free-living gametophyte
o scororing rush- cell walls contain silica
- Whisk ferns- no roots or stems

Fern Lifecycle
- sporophyte dominant ( containing fiddlehead, frond, and rhizome)
- sori on back hold sporangium
- homosoporous spores develop into bisexual gametophyte( also calles
prothallus) (gametophyte does not have vascular tissue)
- does not self fertilize; so sperm develops first and goes to other fern
archegonia to fertilize
- zygote develops new sporophyte from free-living photosynthesizing
gametophyte