KINGDOM MONERA

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Introduction:-
• Members of the Monera kingdom are all
bacteria.
• Most abundant form of life on Earth
(distribution: freshwater to marine, cold to
hot springs, land to air)
• over 4500 different kinds of bacteria
• they are important constituents of the
atmosphere, soil, water.
• also important in decay processes,
diseases, etc

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• Bacteria can be found anywhere, including on
the surface of a contact lens (left) or in dental
plaque (right)

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General characteristics:
• Unicellular – smallest organism in general
• Prokaryotic - don’t have a membrane-bound
nucleus
• Nutrition mainly absorbed, Sometimes
photosynthetic or chemosynthetic
• Cell wall is a polysaccuride with a polypeptide
cross-links
• Reproduction through binary fissions, some
exchange genetic material

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 Part 1: Basic taxonomy
• Two domains:
– ARCHAEBACTERIA (archea = ancient,
bacteria)
• Anaerobic
• Live in unusually HARSH
environments
– EUBACTERIA (true bacteria)
• Many forms, some photosynthetic
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I. Archaea:
• Phylum Crenarchaeota:
– Thermophiles (Can live in Water that is
Extremely HOT and ACIDIC)
• Phylum Euryarchaeota:
– Methanogens (produce Methane Gas) &
– Halophiles (Live in Extremely SALTY
Conditions)
• Phylum Korarchaeota: Some Hot
Springs Microbes
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II. Bacteria:
• Division (Phylum) Proteobacteria: N-Fixing
Bacteria
• Division (Phylum) Cyanobacteria: Blue-Green
Bacteria
• Division (Phylum) Eubacteria: True Gram
Positive Bacteria
• Division (Phylum) Spirochetes: Spiral Bacteria
• Division (Phylum) Chlamydiae: Intracellular
Parasites

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Part 2: Structure n shapes
• Unicellular, capsule
procaryotes flagella

• lack organelles DNA

• DNA is free in the cytoplasm
cytoplasm (no
nuclear
membrane)

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Shape

• Shapes of bacteria
–Round: coccus
(grain)
–Rod: bacillus
(stick)
–Spiral: spirillus

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External Structures: Capsule
• Gel like coating on
the outside of the
cell
• helps cells attach to
their environment
• protection from
being eaten by other
microbes

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Streptococcus mutans
• Bacteria that causes
tooth decay
• secretes the capsule in
the presence of sugar
and sticks to teeth
• this causes plaque to
form on the teeth
resulting in tooth decay

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Flagella

• help bacteria to move

• spiral and rod shaped bacteria have
flagella, round shaped bacteria lack
flagella
• need flagella to move around to look for
nutrients
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Cell Wall: Peptidoglycan
• Chemically different
than plant cell walls
made up of cellulose
• A matrix of sugar
crosslinked with
amino acids
• function: helps keep
the shape of cell,
and protects the cell
from swelling or peptidoglycan
breaking
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Cell Wall : gram positive and negative

•Gram-Positive Bacteria (purple/blue dye)-

contain a thick layer of peptidoglycan that
absorbs stain.

•Gram-Negative Bacteria (red/pink dye)-

contains a thin layer of peptidoglycan that
does not really absorb stain.
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 Part 3: Classification
1. Metabolism based Classification
• Aerobic bacteria: use oxygen to carry on
respiration which produces energy. MOST
bacteria are aerobic.
• Facultative Anaerobic bacteria: bacteria that
can produce energy with or without oxygen.
This is called fermentation.
• Obligate Anaerobes: bacteria can only
produce their energy in an oxygen-free
environment. This process is also called
fermentation.
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 2. Nutrition Based Classification
a) Autotrophic Bacteria
Obtain energy from inorganic (non-
living) sources. 2 types:
– Photosynthetic bacteria: contain
chlorophyll in the cell membrane. These
are the blue-green or cyanobacteria.
– Chemoautotrophic bacteria: energy
comes from inorganic molecules such as
nitrogen, sulfur, hydrogen and iron
compounds.

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Photosynthetic bacteria
Chemoautotrophic
bacteria

cyanobacteria

Sulfur bacteria
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Example of Photosynthetic
bacteria…

~Cyanobacteria~
• Contain chlorophyll-a
• Release free oxygen
through photosynthesis
• ‘blue-green’ algae

Cyanobacteria fossil

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b) Heterotrophic Bacteria

• Obtain energy from organic

sources.
– These bacteria play a leading role in the
breakdown and decomposition of organic
molecules. Thus are key players in the
biological recycling of nutrients.

Rhizobacterium on clover stem

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2 type of Heterotrophic bacteria…
(i) Saprobes: -feed on
dead plant and
animal matter. Gives
soil its characteristic
smell
(ii) Parasites: These
bacteria live on or in
living organisms and
may cause disease.
Bacteria causing
Examples: meningitis,
pneumonia and meningitis
pneumonia,
tuberculosis.

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 Part 4: Reproduction
• Mostly by asexual
reproduction

a) Binary Fission- a form of

asexual reproduction where
a parent cell divides into two
identical cells.
– Under ideal conditions,
lots of food, proper
temperature and lots of
space, bacteria can divide
every 20 minutes.
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b) Sexual Reproduction

• types of bacteria’s
sexual reproduction
– Transduction:
genes are transferred
between bacterias
by viruses.
– Conjugation:
genes are transferred
directly from one
prokaryote to another

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 Part 5: Uses of Bacteria
• Lactobacillus: used in dairy foods to
change glucose into lactose.
• Used in making foods like
yogurt,cheeses, vinegar.
• Use bacteria to make food for cattle
(silage) which helps increase milk
production.
• Used as herbicides and pesticides.

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 Cont’d..Uses of Bacteria

• Some bacteria are used in industry to

clean up wastes, chemical spills of gas
and oil. The bacteria can digest toxic
chemicals and turn them into harmless
products.

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• Lactobacillus bulgaricus helps turn milk
into cheese, yogurt, and other dairy
products.

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• Escherichia coli (a.k.a. E. coli) lives in the
gut, it helps digest food and produces
Vitamin K.
• The "bad" strain of E. coli can causes
severe foodborne sickness (ie diarrhoea).

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 VIRUSES

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 Viruses not belong
to the 5 kingdoms of life.

 They are much smaller and much less

complex than cells.
 They are macromolecular units
composed either DNA or RNA.
 They have no membrane-bound
organelles, no ribosomes (organelle site
of protein synthesis), no cytoplasm (living
contents of a cell), and no source of
energy production of their own.
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 Cont’d…

They do not have the self-

maintenance metabolic
reactions of living systems.
Viruses lack cellular
respiration, no energy
production, gas exchange, etc.
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 However….
 they do reproduce, but at the expense of the
host cell.

viruses hijack the host cell

and force it to produce more viruses.

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 Viruses may attack animals and plants.
 Infectious human viruses can be
dispersed though the air (airborne
viruses) or body fluids (HIV virus).
 Epidemic viruses (such as HIV) that
are passed from person to person via
sexual conjugation are remarkably
similar to computer viruses.

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