Unit 1: Plant Reproduction

1. Differentiate sexual from asexual reproduction.

2. Describe the life cycle of flowering plants
3. Identify fates of floral parts

• 3F’s - flower, fruits, double fertilization

• Diploid plant (sporophyte) - haploid spores - divide by mitosis - multicellular gametes - produce
sperm and egg

• Anther – four microsporangia/pollen sac – microsporocyte/ microspore mother cell (2n) –

meiosis – 4 haploid microspores (n) – mitosis – pollen grain with generative cell, tube cell, spore
wall – reach stigma – tube cell -> pollen tube – generative cell -> 2 sperm cells
• Ovule – megasporangium (2n) – megasporocyte – meiosis – 4 megaspores (n) – 1 survive –
nucleus – mitosis 3 times – 8 haploid nuclei – ‘embryo sac’ – 1 egg, 2 synergids (chemically
attracts pollen tube to micropyle), 3 antipodal, polar nuclei
• Polar nuclei – share cytoplasm of large central cell of embryo sac
• Wind-pollination – enormous amount of pollen to compensate for randomness of wind pollination
• Coevolution of pollinator and flower – length of floral tube and length of insect’s proboscis
• Double fertilization – ensures endosperm only forms when egg is fertilized; not waste on infertile
ovules
• After fertilization – increase in Ca2+ levels in egg, block to polyspermy
 • Seed dormancy – requirement to break ensures germination in advantageous place
• Cotyledon of garden bean – starch absorbed from endosperm
• Imbibition – uptake of water
• Eudicot – radicle – hook in hypocotyl – pushed upward by growth – light straightens hypocotyl –
cotyledons separate – true leaves grow
• Monocot – coleoptile push upward – shoot tip grows through coleoptile tunnel and breaks through

Fruit form and function

• Ovary wall -> pericarp
• Exocarp – peel; mesocarp – flesh; endocarp – stony or thin
1. Fleshy fruits
• Berry: a fleshy fruit in which all three layers—endocarp, mesocarp, exocarp—are soft
(grape, tomato).
• Pome: similar to a berry except that the endocarp is papery or leathery (apple).
• Drupe: similar to a berry except that the endocarp is hard, sclerenchymatous (stone
fruits: peach, cherry, plum, apricot).
• Pepo: a fleshy fruit in which the exocarp is a tough, hard rind; the inner soft tissues may
not be differentiated into two distinct layers (pumpkin, squash, cantelope).
• Hesperidium: exocarp is leathery (Citrus).
2. Dry fruits
Indehiscent fruits
Developing from a single carpel
• Caryopsis: simple and small, containing only one seed, and the testa (seed coat)
becomes fused to the fruit wall during maturation (grasses: wheat, corn, oats).
• Achene: like a caryopsis, but the seed and fruit remain distinct. Fruit wall is thin and
papery (sunflowers).
• Samara: a one-seeded fruit with winglike outgrowths of the ovary wall (maples, alder,
ash).
 Developing from a compound gynoecium (a compound pistil)
• Nut: although the gynoecium originally consists of several carpels and ovules, all but
one ovule degenerate during development. Pericarp is hard at maturity (walnut).
Dehiscent fruits
Developing from a single carpel
• Legume: fruit breaks open along both sides (beans, peas)
• Follicle: fruit breaks open on only one side (columbine, milkweeds)
Developing from a compound gynoecium
• Capsule: opens many ways:
o Splitting along lines of fusion (Hyperium)
o Splitting between lines of fusion (Iris)
o Splitting into a top and bottom half (primrose)
o Opening by small pores (poppy)
• Schizocarp: Compound ovary breaks into individual carpels called mericarps.
3. Compound fruits
• Aggregate fruits: carpels of flower not fused, but grow together during fruit maturation
(raspberry).
• Multiple fruit: all the fruits of an inflorescence grow together during fruit maturation
(pineapple).

Asexual Reproduction
• Extension of capacity for indeterminate growth
• Fragmentation
• Apomixis – dandelion; diploid cell in the ovule gives rise to embryo
• Prevent self-polination – dioecious plants; self-incompatibility – detects s-genes and fails to produce
pollen tube – enzymatic destruction of RNA
• Remove anthers or make male sterile plants
• Callus – clones from cuttings
• Grafting – scion (graft); stock (where it is implanted)
• Test tube cloning – transgenic; protoplast fusion

Unit 2: Plant Growth and Development

1. Describe the functions of different plant hormones
2. Differentiate the process of germination between monocots and dicots

• Etiolation – adaptation for growing in darkness; de-etiolation

Reception
• Phytochrome located in cytoplasm
Transduction
• Ca2+ and cyclic GMP – second messengers
Response
• Post-translational modification – activates preexisting enzymes
• Transcriptional regulation – increase or decrease synthesis of mRNA encoding a specific enzyme
• --phosphorylation activated by Ca2+ and cyclic GMP
Plant hormones/ plant growth regulator

• Darwin – phototropism – tip

• Boysen-Jensen – permeable barrier
• Frits Went – diffused into agar – auxin
• Interactions between hormones control growth and development
Auxin
• Polar transport – tip to base
• 10^-8 to 10^-4 M
• Acid growth hypothesis: Activate proton pumps – increase voltage and lower pH – activate
expansins breaking cross-links in cell wall
• Alter gene expression
• Branching patterns; phyllotaxy; leaf vein patterns; vascular cambium
• Female gametophytes organization
• Cuttings; herbicide from hormonal overdose; fruit growth
Cytokinins
• Auxin – inhibit axillary bud to lengthen the shoot; cytokinin – signal axillary bud to begin growing
• Anti-aging – inhibit protein breakdown; slow apoptosis
Gibberellins
• Young roots and leaves
• Stem elongation
Abscisic Acid
• Seed dormancy; drought – germinates when water washes away ABA
Ethylene
• Response to stress and externally applied auxin
• Fruit ripening and apoptosis
• Mechanical stress; trigger horizontal growth – triple response: slowing of stem elongation,
thickening of stem, curvature
• Ein - insensitive, eto - overproduction , ctr – constitutive; does not respond to inhibitors
• Senescence – programmed death of some cells
• Leaf abscission – change in ratio of ethylene and auxin; more ethylene – produce enzymes digest
cellulose and cell wall components
• Fruit ripening – cell wall breakdown

Responses to Light
• Curvature – blue; below 500 nm
• Blue light receptor – phototropism, opening of stomata, light-induced slowing of hypocotyl
elongation; cryptochrome – inhibition of stem elongation
• Phytochromes – lettuce seeds germination 600 nm red light, inhibition far-red 730
• Pr to Pfr is faster than Pfr to Pr; ratio of Pfr to Pr increases in sunlight, triggers germination
• Pr – vertical Pfr – horizontal
• Photoperiodism – critical night length: short, long -day flowers, day neutral flowers
• Vernalization – cold to induce flowering
Other responses
• Gravitropism by settling of statoliths – plastids with dense starch grains
• Thigmomorphogenesis – changes in form from environmental perturbation
• Thigmotropism – touch due to action potentials
Unit 3: Concepts and Tools of Taxonomy and Systematics
1. Differentiate between taxonomy and systematics
2. Enumerate levels of Linnaean hierarchy of classification

Phylogenetic trees
• Patterns of descent and not phenotypic similarity
• Does not represent absolute ages
• Should not assume a taxon evolved from a taxon next to it

• Homologies – phenotypic and genetic similarities due to shared ancestor

• Analogies – same appearance but different genetics

Unit 4: Bacterial, Algal, Fungal, and Plant Diversity

1. Describe distinguishing characteristics of each taxonomic group
2. List unifying and distinguishing characteristics of each representative group
3. Explain the function of relevant structures

The Prokaryotes
1. Describe general characteristics of prokaryotes
2. Differentiate Archaea from Eubacteria
3. Explain how prokaryotes exchange genetic material

• Cell wall – peptidoglycan -> gram positive; gram-negative – lipopolysaccharide – cause fever and
shock
• Antibiotics such as penicillin – inhibit peptidoglycan cross-linking
• Capsule (defined) / slime layer (less organized) – surrounds cell wall and adheres to substrate
• Fimbriae and pili
• Motility – taxis – movement toward or away from stimulus
• Flagella – analogous with archaea; motor, hook, filament; descended from ancestral secretory
system – example of exaptation
• Circular dna + plasmids – nucleoid; antibiotics block protein synthesis
• Binary fission
• Endospore – resistant cell against stress; produce a copy of chromosome and surrounds it with
tough multilayered structure
• Highly evolved bc of short generation times

Genetic Recombination
• Transformation – DNA from surroundings; cell surface proteins that recognize DNA
• Transduction – phages carry DNA from one cell to another (e.g. virus)
• Conjugation – DNA is transferred from same species that are temporarily joined; sexual pilus in E
coli; F factor – segment in DNA (Hfr cell – high frequency of recomb) or plasmid (F+ or F-)
Resistance – R plasmids
Metabolism
• Obligate aerobes – O2
• Obligate anaerobes – poisoned by O2; fermentation or anaerobic respiration
• Facultative anaerobes – both
• Nitrogen fixation – N2 to NH3
• Anabaena – heterocyst – N2 fixation, thickened wall restricts entry of O2 that can interfere with N2
fixation
• Biofilms – surface coating colonies
• Methane and sulfate consuming bacteria and archaea

Archaea
• Extremophiles
• Extreme halophiles – highly saline environment
• Extreme thermophiles – very hot
• Methanogens – release methane

Exotoxins vs endotoxins

The Algae
1. Differentiate different algal groups based on their dominant pigment and stored food

Phylum Representative Pigments Stored food

Dinophyta Dinoflagellates Chrorophyll a and c Starch or oil
Euglenophyta Euglenoids Chlorophyll a and b Paramylon
Bacillariophyta Diatoms Chlorophyll a and c Chrysolaminarin
Chrysophyta Golden algae Chlorophyll a and c Leucosin
Chlorophyta Green algae Chlorophyll a and b Starch
Phaeophyta Brown algae Chlorophyll a and c Laminarin, mannitol, fat
Rhodophyta Red algae Chrolophyll a and d Floridean starch
 The Fungi
1. Differentiate fungal groups based on their reproductive structures.
Fungal-like protists
1. Oomycota (Water molds and downy mildews)
• Cellulose cell walls instead of chitin
• No plastids and do not perform photosynthesis
• Water molds – cottony masses on dead algae and animals
• Rusts and downy mildews – land as plant parasites
• Phytophthora infestans – caused potato late blight
2. Myxomycota (plasmodial slime molds)
• Plasmodium – single cell mass (mitosis without cytokinesis)
• Pseudopodia
• Phagocytosis
• Develops fruiting bodies when environment dries up or no food left
3. Acrasiomycota (cellular slime molds)
• Solitary cells that function individually but forms an aggregate and functions as unit when
food is depleted
• Haploid (only zygote is diploid)
• Dictyostellium discoideum
• Cheating mutants – spore cells at top
• Non cheating mutants – part of stalk that dies
• Aggregates with like mutants
 4. Chytridiomycota
• Flagellated spores – zoospores
• Multicellular branched hyphae or single celled

Fungi
• Heterotrophs; secrete hydrolytic enzymes
• Grow as multicelled filaments or Yeast – single celled fungi
• Hyphae – network; mycelia; length prioritized over girth
• Septa – divides cells; with pores to allow flow
• Coenocytic fungi – no septa; continuous cytoplasm with thousands of nuclei
• Haustoria – specialized hyphae to exchange from host
• Mycorrhizae- relationship bet fungi and plant roots
o Ectomycorrhizal – sheaths
o Arbuscular mycorrhizal – extend to root cell wall through invagination
• Cell walls – chitin

Sexual reproduction
• Hyphae and spores (n); transient diploid stages
• Pheromones – signal -> hyphae meet and fuse – plasmogamy
o When it does not fuse agad – heterokaryon
o Nucleus pair up – dikaryotic
• Karyogamy – n to 2n -> meiosis (n) -> formation of spores
Asexual reproduction
• Produce haploid spores by mitosis
• Pinching of bud cells – yeast
 • Deuteromycetes – no sexual rep
Origin of Fungi
• Flagellated ancestor
• Fossils of earliest known vascular plant have evidence of mycorrhizal rel

Chytridiomycota/ Chytrids
• Single celled, flagellated spores
Zygomycetes
• Decomposer/ parasite
• Rhizopus – coenocytic – septa only in reproductive cells
• Zygosporangium – resistant to freezing and drying and metabolically inactive

Ascomycetes
• Marine, freshwater, terrestrial
• Live with green algae or cyanobacteria to form lichens
Basidiomycetes
• Decomposers of wood and other and ectomycorrhizal
• Long lived dikaryrotic mycelium
• Four haploid develops into basidospores
• Endophytes – fungi inside leaves
• Soredia – small clusters of hyphae with embedded algae
• Mycosis – infection caused by fungal parasite
 The Non-vascular plants
1. Describe anatomical features of non-vascular plants
2. Differentiate sporophyte stage from gametophyte stage
3. Differentiate different groups based on sporophyte stage

Adaptations moving to land – charophyte algae

• Sporopollenin – protect zygote from drying
Key traits of land plants
1. Alternation of generations
a. Haploid gametophytes – production of haploid gametes by mitosis
b. Diploid sporophyte – produce spores by meiosis that can develop into haploid plants
• Placental transfer cells
2. Walled spores produced in sporangia
• Sporangia – sporocytes/ spore mother cells(2n) -meiosis- haploid spores
• Sporopollenin
3. Multicellular gametangia
• Archegonia and antheridia
4. Apical meristems
Bryophytes
• Protonema – gametophyte – sporophyte – capsule (sporangium) – spores
• Sperm require water to swim to eggs – moist environment
• Produce asexually through brood bodies
• Sporophyte – foot, seta, capsule, peristome – teeth that open when dry and close when moist
• Sphagnum or peat moss – does not readily decay due to phenolic compounds
• Sporophyte dependent
1. Liverworts
• Sporangia under archegonia (foot, seta, capsule)
2. Hornworts
• Lacks seta
3. Mosses

The spore-bearing vascular plants

1. Describe anatomical features of spore-bearing vascular plants
2. Differentiate the alternation of generation of ferns from non-vascular plants

Seedless Vascular plants

• Dominant sporophyte
• Xylem and phloem
• Evolution of roots
• Leaves – microphylls and megaphylls
• Sporophylls – spore bearing leaf
• Mostly homosporous, monoecious
• Increase rate of photosynthesis and removal of co2 in atmosphere -> discovered by number of
stomata and isotope analysis
• Peat and coal
1. Lycophyta
• Club mosses and spike mosses
• Not true mosses
• Epiphytes – use other trees as substrate but not parasitic
• Dichotomously branching roots
• Upright stems, horizontal growth
• Homo or hetero
2. Pterophyta
• Closer to seed plants than lycophytes
• Homosporous
3. Sphenophyta/ Equitopsida (horsetail ferns)
• Mukhang test tube brush
• Arthrophytes – jointed plants
• Stem main photosynthetic
• Air canals carry O2 to roots
• homosporous
4. Psilophyta (whisk ferms)
• Dichotomously branching stems, no roots, only rhizoids
• Scale like outgrowths w/o vascular tissue – evolutionary reduction of leaves
• Yellow knob – three fused sporangia
• Homosporous
 The Gymnosperms and Angiosperms
1. Differentiate seed from spores
2. Differentiate gymnosperms from angiosperms based on their seed

• Reduced gametophytes – protection from environmental stresses

• Heterosporous
• Megasporagium – retained in parent sporophyte

Ovules and production of eggs

Pollen and Production of sperm

• Microspore -> pollen grain consisting of gametophyte within pollen wall (sporopollenin)
• Directly carried to egg through pollen tube
Advantage of seeds

• Multicellular vs single celled spores

• Dormant for longer period
• Stored food
Gymnosperms

• Seeds are exposed on modified leaves sporophylls that usually form cones
• Progymnosperms – transitional species eg Archeopteris
1. Cycadophyta – palm like leaves
2. Ginkgophyta – ginkgo biloba
3. Gnetophyta
• Welwitschia – deserts; strap like leaves
• Ephedra – Mormon tea; ephedrine – decongestant
• Gnetum – look similar to angiosperms
4. Coniferophyta
• Evergreen
Angiosperms
• Sporophylls – floral organs: sepal, petals, stamens and carpels
1. Basal angiosperms – no vessels
2. Magnoliids
3. Monocot – pollen grain one opening; floral organs in multiples of 3
4. Eudicot – pollen grain 3 openings; multiples of 4 and 5