THE THREE-DOMAIN

CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

Dr. Carl Woese and Dr. Norman R. Pace,

New York Times, April 14, 1998,
• No single classification system is completely
acceptedby all biologists.
• One of the most widely accepted is the five-kingdom
system
• A major advantage of this system is the clarity with
which it deals with microorganisms. It places all
prokaryotes, microorganisms that lack a cell nucleus, in
the kingdom Monera (Prokaryotae)
• It places most unicellular Eukaryotes organisms
whose cells contain a distinct nucleus, in the
kingdom Protista.
(Margulis proposed a very similar five-kingdom
system in 1982, but she referred to the
kingdom of simple eukaryotes as Protoctista
instead of Protista.)
The five-kingdom system also places fungi in
the separate kingdom Fungi.
Endosymbiont theory
Universal Phylogenetic Tree derived from comparative
sequencing of 16S or 18S RNA. Note the three major
domains of living organisms
 The Five-Kingdom System of Classification
Monera Protista Fungi Plantae Animalia
(Prokaryotae)

Cell type Prokaryotic Eukaryotic Eukaryotic Eukaryotic Eukaryotic

Cell Unicellular; Unicellular; Unicellular or multicellular multicellular
organizati occasionally occasionally Multicellular
on grouped Multicellular
Cell wall Present Present in Present Present Absent
in most, some, absent
in other
Nutrition Absorption, Ingestion or Absorptive, Absorption Ingestion; in
photosynthetic, absorption, photosynth parasites by
some etic absorption
chemosynthetic
Reprodu Asexual, Mostly asexual sexual and Both sexual Primarily
ction usually, by occasionally asexual,ofte and sexual
binary fission both sexual n involving asexual
and asexual a complex
life cycle
 Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya Compared
Bacteria Archaea Eukarya

Cell type Prokaryotic Prokaryotic Eukaryotic

Cell wall Present, Usually present, lack peptidoglycan Absent or made of
peptidoglycan other materials
Lipids in Fatty acids present Isoprenes present, Fatty acids present,
membranes present, linked by linked by eter bonds linked by ester
ester bonds bonds
Protein synthesis First amino acid = First amino acid = First amino acid =
methionine; formylmethionine; methionine; most
impaired by not impaired by not impaired by
antibiotics such as antibiotics such as antibiotics such as
chloramphenicol chloramphenicol chloramphenicol
Genetic material Small circular Small circular Complex nucleus
chromosome and chromosome and p with more than one
plasmids; histones lasmids, histonelike large, linear chrom,
absent present histones
proteins present
 Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya Compared, Continued

Bacteria Archaea Eukarya

RNA polymerase Simple Complex Complex

Locomotion Simple flagella, Simple flagella, gas Complex flagella,
gliding, gas vesicles vesicles cilia, legs, fins, wings
Habitat Wide range of Usually only extreme Wide range of
environments environments environments
Typical organisms, Enteric bacteria, Methane-producing Algae, protozoa,
cyanobacteria bacteria, fungi, plants, and
Halobacteria, animal
extreme
thermophyll
Typical size 0.5 – 4 µm 0.5–4 µm > 5 µm
 Why study Microbial Diversity
• Microbes: The Earth Engine
– Capable of exploiting a vast range of energy
sources and thriving in almost every habitat
– For 2 billion years microbes were the only form of
life on Earth
– It is estimated that 50% of living protoplasm on
this planet is microbial
– Represent the richest molecular and chemical
diversity in nature
– Without MO all life on Earth would cease
• Microbes : Biological Frontier
– Because MO are small, they are least known
– Current evident suggest that they perhaps 1.5
million species of fungi exist yet only 5% are
described
– For bacteria, up to 1 million species of bacteria,
yet only 3.100 are described in Bergey’s Manual.
– A gram of typical soil contain about 1 billion of
bacteria, but only 1% of those could be cultured
– Most microbes remain to be discovered
 The Value of MD
• Diverse MO are essential to a sustainable
biosphere:
• Able to recycle nutrient
• Produce and consume gasses that affect
global climate
• Destroy pollutant, treat waste
• Used for biological control of plant and animal
pest
 In advance Biotechnology
• Applying process carried out by MO human
have been success to solve problem in :
• Agriculture and Food production
• Human health
• Environmental quality
• Industry
• With development in molecular biology and
genetic offer great promise to develop the
potential of MD
 APPLICATION
The Uses of Extremozymes
• Various Archaeobacteria are able to survive
under highly adverse environmental conditions;
from freezing waters to deep-sea vents, from
concentrated brine to hot sulfur springs.
• The conditions present in these environments
would inactivate, or denature, most enzymes. In
order for these organisms to not only survive but
to even flourish under such conditions, they must
possess special adaptations—namely, resistant
enzymes
• Enzymes that can survive and function under such
adverse conditions are called extremozymes
• In PCR, the reactions must be cycled between low and
high temperatures. The high temperature inactivates
ordinary DNA polymerases, which then must be
added again as the temperature lowers.
• The Taq DNA polymerase, isolated from the
thermophile Thermus aquaticus, survives the high-
temperature cycling and has enabled a totally
automated PCR technology to be developed.
• An even more heat-resistant DNA polymerase,
Pfu has been isolated from the hyperthermophile
Pyrococcus furiosus
(“flaming fireball”). This enzyme works best at 100
C
• Proteases and lipases derived from alkaliphilic
bacteria are being used as detergent additives to
increase their stain-removal ability
• As more archaeobacteria and their extremoyzmes
are discovered, new manufacturing applications are
certain to be developed
Thank you