Charactristics of Living Organisms PPTX Notes

Characteristics of living organisms
BIOLOGICS CLASSES/ PRATIKSHA TIWARI 1

Seven Characteristics of Living
Organisms

Classification of living organisms
Classification:
• The scientific method of dividing organisms into smaller and
larger groups, on basis of their similarities.
• Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus is the Father of Systematic
Biology. He believed he could:
 Put every organism into a group (the science of TAXONOMY)

 Give every organism a name (the science of NOMENCLATURE).

CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING ORGANISMS
Classification:
• The scientific method of dividing
organisms into smaller and larger
groups, on basis of their similarities.
• Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus is
the Father of Systematic Biology. He
believed he could:
 Put every organism into a group (the

science of TAXONOMY)
 Give every organism a name (the
science of NOMENCLATURE).

BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE

Hierarchy of Classification

Taxonomic hierarchy
• Taxonomic hierarchy is the process of arranging various organisms
into successive levels of the biological classification either in a
decreasing or an increasing order from kingdom to species and
vice versa.”
In this system of classification, kingdom is always ranked the highest
followed by division, class family, genus, and species.

SPECIES
• A species is defined as a group of organisms
that can reproduce to produce fertile
offspring.

How Organisms are Classified
• Organisms share features because they originally descend from a common ancestor
• Example: all mammals have bodies covered in hair, feed young from mammary
glands and have external ears (pinnas)
• Originally, organisms were classifed using morphology (the overall form and shape
of the organism, e.g. whether it had wings or legs) and anatomy (the detailed body
structure as determined by dissection)
• As technology advanced, microscopes, knowledge of biochemistry and eventually
DNA sequencing allowed us to classify organisms using a more scientifc approach
• Studies of DNA sequences of different species show that the more similar the base
sequences in the DNA of two species, the more closely related those two species
are (and the more recent in time their common ancestor is).This means that the
base sequences in a mammal’s DNA are more closely related to all other
mammals than to any other vertebrate groups .
• As DNA base sequences are used to code for amino acid sequences in proteins, the
similarities in amino acid sequences can also be used to determine how closely related
organisms are

Modern Classification is based on
studies of DNA structure of organisms
• DNA is the chemical from which chromosomes are made
• ·Each DNA molecule is made up of strings of smaller
molecules containing four bases
• ·Biologists compare the sequences of the bases in the DNA of
organisms from two different species
• ·The more similar the base sequence, the more closely
related the species are to one another
• ·Organisms which share a more recent ancestor have base
sequences in DNA that are more similar than those that
share only a distant ancestor
• ·The sequences of bases in DNA and of amino acids in
proteins are used as a more accurate means of classification

Five Kingdom Classification

Basis of Classification
The characteristics that used to divide all organisms into one of the five groups
includes:
 How many cells made up their bodies, if their cells were very simple or had
complex parts.
 If they can move on their own.
 If they could make their own food , or had to eat other creatures to survive

Kingdom Monera/Bacteria
• Bacteria cells are very different from the cells of all
other organisms: they do not have a nucleus.
• Some bacteria can carry out photosynthesis. Like
Cyanobacteria or blue green algae.
• The oldest fossils belong to this kingdom, so we think
that they were the first kinds of organisms to evolve.
• Small , unicellular, microscopic.
• They have cell wall but not made up of cellulose and
chitin (made up of peptidiglycans)
• Have cell membrane, cytoplasm but no nucleus .
• It contains only DNA in the form of single coiled
chromosomes.
• Some have one or more flagella for movement.
Kingdom Fungi

General Characteristics of Fungi
• For a very long time, fungi were classified as plants. However, they
are very different from plants and belong to their own kingdom.
• Usually multicellular Yeast is the only unicellular fungi
• They have a true nucleus so they are eukaryotes
• They have cell wall made up of chitin
• Fungi do not have chlorophyll and so do not perform
photosynthesis.
• They are saprophytes (feed on dead and decay animals) or parasitic (live
inside the host body)
• Some fungi causes diseases like ring worm, Athelets foot.
• A fungus is made ofhyphae, which are long tubes, collectively they are called
mycellium and form branches that can cover many acres.
• Fungi mainly reproduces by spores produced inside the fruiting body called
sporangia on hyphae
• when spores falls on suitable substratum under favourable condition of
moisture /humidity and temperature they germinate to produce new colony of
fungi

ECONIMIC IMPORTANCE OF FUNGI
•Some fungi like mushrooms are eaten as food
•Yeast is used to make ethanol and bread.
•Antibiotics like penicillin is also obtained from fungi like
penicillium

Kingdom Plantae
• Plants are multicellular organisms.
• They have cell wall made of cellulose.
• Some parts of a plant contain green pigment chlorophyll.
• Chlorophyll absorbs energy from sunlight for plant to make
glucose, using CO2 and H2O from environment. This is
called photosynthesis.
• They have roots , stems and leaves
• Reproduces by seeds
• Seeds are produced in ovary, inside flower
• Asexual reproduction is possible.
• Plant Kingdom includes organisms such as ferns and
flowering plants.

DIVISION- FERNS
• Ferns have leaves called as fronds.
• Do not produce flowers but instead reproduce
by spores produced on under side of the the
fronds.
• Plants with root ,stem and leaves

Flowering Plants
• Plants with root stem and leaves.
• Reproduces sexually by means of flowers and
seeds.
• Seeds are produced inside the ovary of the
flower.
• Flowering plants can be divided into two main
groups the monocotyledonous plants and
dicotyledonous plants.
• Abbreviated as monocots and dicots.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MONOCOT AND DICOT

Animal Kingdom – Classification
• The animal kingdom contains many phyla. Some of them
are:
• Vertebrates, Arthropods, Annelids, Molluscs, Nematodes.
• It is not always easy to recognise an animal. For a very long
time, people thought that’s sea anemones were plants,
because they tend to stay in one place and their tentacles
look rather kike petals. Now we know that they are
animals.

4.Phylum Arthropoda

Special features of arthropods
• Invertebrates (No backbone).
• Body is covered with hard and waterproof
exoskeleton.
• Segmented body-Body divided into head
thorax and abdomen.
• Jointed legs

Classification of Arthropods
• There are more arthropods than any other
group of animals so they are divided into four
classes :
• Insects
• Crustaceans
• Arachnids
• Myriapods

VIRUSES
• Viruses are not true living things.
• They are not considered to be alive, because on their own they can do
nothing until they enter a living cell.
• Viruses are complicated assemblies of molecules including proteins,
nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates
• When viruses encounter a cell, they take over cell’s machinery. A series of
chemical reactions occur that lead to the production of new viruses.
• Theses new viruses burst out of the cell and invade others, where the
process is repeated. The host cell is usually killed when this happens.
• These steps are completely passive, that is, they are predefined by the
nature of the molecules that comprise the virus particle.
• Viruses don’t actually ‘do’ anything. Without cells, viruses would not be
able to multiply.
• Scientists do not classify a virus as a living thing. This is because:
 it does not show all seven processes for life

 when it enters a cell it changes the way a cell works so it can make copies
of the virus.

• What is a Virus?
• Viruses are non-cellular, microscopic infectious agents that can only replicate inside a host cell.
From a biological perspective, viruses cannot be classified either a living organism or non-living.
This is due to the fact that they possess certain defining characteristic features of living organisms
and non-living entities.
•
• In a nutshell, a virus is a non-cellular, infectious entity made up of genetic material and protein that
can invade and reproduce only within the living cells of bacteria, plants and animals.
•
• For instance, a virus cannot replicate itself outside the host cell. This is because viruses lack the
required cellular machinery. Therefore, it enters and attaches itself to a specific host cell, injects its
genetic material, reproduces by using the host genetic material and finally the host cell splits open,
releasing the new viruses.
•
• Viruses can also be crystallized, which no other living organisms can do. It is these factors that lead
to viruses being classified in the grey area – between the living and non-living.
•

Dichotomous keys
• The identification of biological organisms can
be greatly simplified using tools such as
dichotomous keys.
• It is a written set of choices, each involving
two statements, that leads to the name of an
organism.
• Scientists use these to identify unknown
organisms.

•The keys are mutually exclusive
characteristics of biological organisms.
•They often begin with general characteristics
and lead to more specific characteristics.
•You simply compare the characteristics of an
unknown organism against an appropriate
dichotomous key.
•If the organism falls into one category, you go to
the next indicated couplet.
•By following the key and making the correct
choices, you should be able to identify your
specimen to the indicated taxonomic level.

Consider the following animals. They are all related, but each is a separate species. Use
the dichotomous key below to determine the species of each.

Answers:
A: Deerus magnus B: Deerus pestis C: Deerus octagis
D: Deerus purplinis E: Deerus deafus F: Deerus humpis
As seen above:

Exam style Questions












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Characteristics of living organisms

BIOLOGICS CLASSES/ PRATIKSHA TIWARI 1

BIOLOGICS CLASSES/ PRATIKSHA TIWARI 2

 Put every organism into a group (the science of TAXONOMY)

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 Put every organism into a group (the

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 it does not show all seven processes for life

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A: Deerus magnus B: Deerus pestis C: Deerus octagis

D: Deerus purplinis E: Deerus deafus F: Deerus humpis

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