SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
1. Reproduction , is a characteristic of living organisms
Organism produces young ones similar to itself.
Reproduction in multicellular organisms sexual

Two individuals of opposite sex are involved and process involves fusion of gametes.
Asexual means of reproduction





Single individual is involved in the process and it does not involve fusion of gametes
Fungi multiply by asexual spores they produce like zoospore, sporangiospore, conidia etc.
In lower organism like yeast and hydra reproduction takes place by budding.
In planaria (flat worms), a fragmented organism, it regenerates the lost part of its body and
becomes. A new organism.
The fungi, the filamentous alga, the protonema of mosses, all easily multiply by
fragmentation.
Reproduction in unicellular organism like bacteria, unicellular algae of protists (Amoeba)


Here reproduction is synonymous with growth i.e. increase in number of cells. (In unicellular
organism we are not very clear with the usage of growth and reproduction)
Unicellular organism reproduces by binary fission – amoeba, paramecium, and euglena. in
binary fission the cell divides into two equal halves
Organism that do not reproduce

There are many organisms which do not reproduce (mules, sterile worker bees, infertile
human couples, etc). They cannot be called non living.
 So reproduction also cannot be an all inclusive defining characteristic of living organism.
 It is also true that, no non living object is capable of reproducing or replicating by itself.
2. Metabolism
 All living organism are made of chemicals.
 These chemicals are constantly being made and changed into some other biomolecues, by
chemical reaction, catalyzed by enzymes.
 These enzymes catalyzed conversion are metabolic reactions.
 There is thousand of metabolic reaction occurring simultaneously inside all living organisms.
The sum total of all chemical reactions in body is called metabolism.
 All plants, animals, fungi and microbes exhibit metabolism.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience





No non living object exhibits metabolism.
Metabolic reaction can also be demonstrated outside the body in cell free systems (in vitro).
An isolated metabolic reaction outside the body of an organism, performed in a test tube is
neither living nor non living.
Isolated metabolic reaction in vitro are not living things but surely living reactions.
So metabolism is a defining feature of all living organism with exception
Metabolic reaction occurs inside cells so, cellular organization of the body is the defining
feature of life forms
3. Consciousness
 The most obvious and technically complicated feature of living organism is this ability to
sense their surrounding or environmental respond to these environment stimuli which
could be physical, chemical or biological.
 Animals sense environmental through our sense organs.
 Plants also respond to external factors like light, water, temperature, other organism,
pollutants, etc.
 All organism, from the prokaryotes to the most complex eukaryotes can sense an
respond to the environmental factors
 Photoperiod affect reproduction in seasonal breeders, both plant and animals.
 All organism handle chemicals entering their bodies
 All organisms therefore, are ‘aware’ of their surroundings. So they are conscious
 Human being is the only organism who aware of their himself, i.e., has self
consciousness.
Consciousness therefore, becomes the defining property of living organisms defining living state
in human beings


In human being it is sometimes difficult to define the living state.
Patients lying in coma in hospitals, supported by machines which replace heart and
lungs. The patient is brain dead and has no self consciousness, will never come to life.
But still they will be called living because of the metabolism in the body.
Other feature of living organisms
4. Order : highly ordered inflorescences, body pattern, etc
5. Regulation : regulating body temp and osmotic pressure-homeostatic
6. Energy processing : respiration
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
The emergent properties of system
All living phenomena due to underlying interactions
In biological hierarchy (levels of biological organization) property at higher level dye to interaction at
lower level





Biological hierarchy starts with sub microscopic molecular level. The molecules are a
constituent of the organelles and cytoplasm
Properties of cells / cellular organelles are not a result of sum of properties of molecular
constituents of the organelle bur arise as a result of interaction among the molecular
components comprising the organelle
Properties of tissues are not a result of properties of constituent cells but arise as result of
interaction among the constituent cells.
Reductionism / Reductionist biology is reducing complex systems to simpler component that
are more manageable to study. Like the finding of structures of DNA by Watson and crick
has led to the discovery of mechanism of heredity. Concept of physics and chem. Are
applied to understand biology at molecular level, this physic- chemical approach of studying
biology s reductionist biology.
Definition of living being: “living organism are self-replicating, evolving and self-regulating
interactive systems capable of responding to external stimuli.”
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Structural
Physical traits
Proteins





Enzymatic
protiens
Metabolic
traits
Hormonal
protiens
Control of
growth and
development
Every cell has genetic material: DNA in the cells, a stretch of DNA that contains information
for making a protein is called gene.
So DNA is blueprint, which translate into protein (just like a building drawing into a building)
the code of translation is universally same.
These proteins-build the cell protoplasm and many work like enzymes, which catalyze
metabolic reaction, these metabolic reaction in energy generation and maintain a steady
state, and the cell performs work.
DNA is a self-replicating chemical, so it is transferred to both cells after cell division, so both
cells having same information, will behave in same way (same traits) in this way from single
cell zygote the DNA is passed to trillions of cells. So all cells in the body have same GM
All activities in the cell are controlled by DNA.
Diversity in the living world
Biodiversity



Each different kind of plant, animal or organism, represent a species. Species is groups of
similar organism which can be interbreed and produce fertile offspring in nature and are
reproductively isolated from other species.
Term biodiversity refers to the variety of genes, species and ecosystem.
The number of species that are known and described range between 1.7-1.8 million.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience

This variety of species is called biodiversity
Taxonomy: it is the science of biological classification, it include nomenclature, identification,
classification and characterization to find relationship for classifying into groups / taxa.
Nomenclature




Local names would vary from place to place, even within a country, which is confusing.
So, to standardize the naming of living organism-to keep same name throughout the world,
system of nomenclature was made
For plants, scientific names are based on agreed principles and criteria, provided in
international code for the botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), similarly for animal names
international code of zoological nomenclature (ICZN) is there.
This system ensures that each organism has only one name. And also that two different
organism are not given same names.
Binomial nomenclature

i.
ii.





According to this system of naming the name of species will have two component ( A
Combination of two names -binomen)
The Generic name (name of genus).
The specific epithet.(In ICZN the second part is specific name)
This naming system given by carolus Linnaeus is being practiced by biologist all over the
world.
The scientific name of mango is written as mangifera indica.
In his name Mangifera represent the genus while indica, is a particular species belonging to
that genus, or specific epithet
All taxa above the rank of species will be uninominal name and given a unique name.
Generic name / Genus can be used alone as it’s a uninomen. But specific name is always
preceded by Genus, or at least initial letter of the genus.
M.indica
Magnifera sp. or spp. (When species is not known)
Magnifera indica is name of species
Rules for nomenclature
1) Biological names are derived from latin
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
2) The first word in a biological name represents the genus while the second component
denotes the specific epithet.
3) Both the words in a biological name, when hand written, are separately underlined, or
printed in italics to indicate their Latin origin.
4) The first word denoting the genus the genus starts with a capital letter while the specific
epithet starts with a small letter. It can be illustrated with the example of Mangifera indica
5) Name of the author (Who first described the species) appears after the specific epithet, i.e.
at the end of the biological name and is written in an abbreviated from, ex. Mangifera indica
linn.(Author is not italicized)
Classification

Classification is the process in which species or higher level taxa are grouped into
convenient categories based on some easily observable character and relationships
Taxon (pl.taxa)







They are group of living organism having some common characters. All taxa are given a
unique name.
Some names of taxa are Dogs, Cats, Mammals, Wheat, Rice, Plant, Animals, etc. they are
different categories of plant and animals
Animal, Mammals, Dogs, are all taxa – but a dog is mammal and mammals are animals.
Therefore, animal, mammals, and dogs are taxa at different level.
So based on similar characteristics (Relationships), all living organism grouped into different
taxa of different levels. This process of classification is Taxonomy.
For finding character of organism in detail, following information are needed
o External and internal structure (Morphology & Anatomy)
o cell structure
o Development process
o Ecological information of organism
Those organisms which show similarity in this character show their close natural
relationships, so they can be put into a single groups / taxa.
Hence, characterization, identification, classification and nomenclature are the process that
is basic to taxonomy.
Systematic
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience






The study of different kinds of organism, their diversities, but also the evolutionary
relationships among them-(this includes both past and present organism). Is called
systematic.
‘Systema’ means systematic arrangement of organism.
Linnaeus used Systema Naturae as the title of his publication. (10th edition 1758, scientific
names are valid after this name)
Taxonomy is a part of systematic
In systematic, taxonomy is done based on natural and evolutionary relationships.
Systematic include identification, nomenclature and classification of organism into groups
(taxa) based on their natural and evolutionary relationships (Phylogeny).
Taxonomic categories
Taxonomic hierarchy / Linnaean hierarchy




It is defined as sequence of categories in a decreasing or increasing order from kingdom
to species and vice versa. Kingdom is the highest rank followed by phylum / division,
class, order, family, genus and species.
Hierarchy is arranging items un different levels
Each category , referred to as unit of classification, in fact, represent a taxonomic rank
The taxon (pl.: taxa) are given a rank when they are given a formal Latinized name.
Examples showing taxonomic categories and hierarchy




i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
Insects are a taxon; insects represent a group of organisms sharing common features
like three pairs of jointed legs. It means insects are recognizable concrete objects which
can be classified, and thus were given a rank or category.
Each rank or taxon, represent a unit of classification.
These taxonomic groups are distinct biological entities and not merely morphological
aggregates.
Common categories are
Domain
Kingdom,
Phylum or division(for plant),
Class,
Order,
Family,
Genus and
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
viii.
Species.
Common suffix in botany for division-phyla;
Class- opsida, phyceae, ae;
Oder – ale,
Family - aceae
(Domain is above the rank of kingdom)

All organisms, including those in the plant and animal kingdoms have species as the
lowest category.
Species






Taxonomic studies consider a group of individual organism with fundamental similarities
as a species.
In Mangifera indica, Solanumtuberosum (potato) and Panthera Leo (lion) all the three
names, indica, tuberosum and Leo, represent the specific epithet, while the first words
Mangifera, Solanum and Panthera are genera and represent another higher level of
taxon or category.
Each genus may have one or more than one specific epithet representing different
organisms (species), but having many morphological similarities.
For example, Panthera has another specific epithet called Tigris and Solanum includes
species like nigrum and melongena. (S.nigrum, S.melogena)
Human beings belong to the species sapiens which is grouped in genus Homo.
The scientific name thus, for human being, is written as Homo sapiens.
Genus




Genus comprises a group of related species which has no more character in common in
comparison to species of other genera.
Genera are aggregates of closely related species.
For example, potato, tomato and brinjal are three different species but all belong to the
genus Solanum.
Lion (panther leo), leopard (P.pardus) and tiger (P.tigris) with several common features,
are all species of the genus Panthera this genus differs from another genus feliis which
includes cats.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Family





The next category, family, has a group of related genera with still less number of
similarities as compared to genus and species.
In plant – Families are characterized on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive
features of plant species.
Among plants for example, three different genera Solanum, petunia and Datura are
placed in the family Solanaceae.
Family felidae includes genus Panthera felis
Family Canidae includes Dogs
Order







Categories like species, genus and families are based on a number of similar characters
so they are more real (but most real unit is species).
Generally, order and other higher taxonomic categories are identified based on the
aggregates of characters
Oder being a higher category is the assemblage of families having similar characters
(few characters are similar).
The similar characters are less in number as compared to different genera included in a
family.
Plant families like Convolvulaceae, Solanaceae are included in the order polymoniales
mainly based on the floral characters.
Order Carnivora, includes families like Felidae and Canidae.
Order primate – Monkey, Gorilla, Gibbon
Class


This category includes related orders.
Class mammalian includes primate and Carnivora
Phylum


Classes comprising animals like fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals are
included in phylum chordate based on the common features like presence of noto chord
and dorsal hollow neural system.
In case of plant, phylum is called Division.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Kingdom


All animals belonging to various phyla are assigned to the highest category called
Kingdom Animalia in the classification system of animals.
The kingdom Plantae, on the other hand, is distinct, and comprises all plants from
various divisions.
Kingdom
Phyllum or division
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Taxonomic categories showing hierarchial arrangement in ascending order



As we go higher from species to kingdom, the number of common characteristics goes
on decreasing.
Lower the taxa, more are the common characteristics that the members within the
taxon share.
Higher the category, due to ess common characters it si difficult to determine the
relationship to other taxa at the same level. Henceb he problem of classification
becomes complex
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Six kingdom classification : proposed by Carl Woese who has suggested a spate kingdom for the
Arachaebacteria that are included in Monera in Whittaker’s five – kingdom classification in addition to
the five kingdom classification of R.H Whittaker.
Woese suggested a taxonomic rank / category above Kingdom that is domain. Three domains of life: These are Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya.
Archaea has kingdom Archaebacteria,
Bacteria has kingdom Eubacteria.
Eukaryota has kingdom – Protista, Mycota, Plantae and Animalia.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Herbarium









Herbarium is a collection of plant specimens that are dried, pressed and preserved on sheets.
The place (laboratory/institute) where herbarium sheets are systematically stored is called
herbarium.
The primary function of a herbarium is to facilitate identification of plants and also aid in
taxonomic research.
These sheets are arranged according to a universally accepted system of classification.
The herbarium sheets also carry a label providing information about date and place of
collection, English, local and botanical names, family, collector’s name, place of collection, date
of collection etc.
Seeds in pouches, coconut in boxes
The size of sheet is 11*16 inches, 42×29cm size.
Largest herbarium collection – Royal BG kew England.
India (BSI) has regional herbaria located Coimbatore, pune, dehradun, Kolkata and lucknow
29cm
42cm
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Botanical gardens
 These specialized gardens have collections of living plants for reference.
 Plant species in this garden are grown for identification purposes andeach plant is
labeled indicating its botanical/scientific name and its family.
 The famous botanical gardens are
o Kew (England).
o Indian botanical garden, Howrah (India).
o National botanical research institute, Lucknow (India).
Museum




Biological museum are generally set up in educational institute such as schools and colleges.
Museums have collections of preserved plant and animal specimens for study and reference.
Specimens are preserved in the containers or jars in preservative solutions.
Plant and animal specimens may also be preserved as dry specimens.
o Insects are preservation insect boxes after collecting, killing and pinning.
o Larger animals like birds and mammals are usually stuffed and preserved.
o Museum often have collection of skeletons of animals too.
Zoological Parks




These are the places where wild animals are kept in protected environment under human care
and which enable us to learn about their food habits and behavior.
All animals in a zoo are provided, as far as possible, the condition similar to their natural
habitats.
Zoological name is also indicated in Zoo.
One of the purpose is also breeding them for wildlife conservation
Key

Key is another taxonomical aid used for identification of plant and animal based on the
similarities and dissimilarities.
Couplet

The contrasting characters generally in a pair called couplet.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience

Key represents the choice made between two opposite options. This result in acceptance if only
one and rejection of the other.
Lead



Each statement in the key is called a lead.
Separate taxonomic keys are required for each taxonomic category such as family, genus and
species for identification purposes.
Keys are generally analytical in nature.
Flora, Manual, Monographs



Flora contains the actual account of habitat and distribution of plants of given area. These
provide the index to the plant species found in particular area. Flora of British India – by Hooker,
Flora Simlensis – simla
Manual are useful in providing information for identification of names of species found in area.
Monographs contain information on any one taxon in the world.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Changes in plant kingdom
Changes from old two kingdom classification system
i.
ii.
iii.
Fungi, monera and protista having cell walls have now been excluded from plantae.
Cyanobacteria / blue green algae are not ‘algae’ any more-they are in monera.
Chlorella, chlamydomonas are in protista.
Artificial system of classification
1. An early system of classification that used only gross superficial morphological characters such
as habit, color, number and shape of leaves, etc.
2. They gave equal weight age to vegetative and sexual characteristics. But this not acceptable
since we know that often the vegetative characters are more easily affected by environment.
Number system of classification
1) This system was based on natural affinities among the organism and it considers, not only the
external features, but also internal feature, like
a) Ultrastructure (cell structure)
b) Anatomy
c) Embryology (development)
d) Phytochemistry
So if a number of characters are studied and show closeness in most of those feature then the closely
related species would always come together in one group.
2) For flowering plants natural system of classification was given by Bentham and Hooker.
Phylogenetic classification system
1. Evolutionary relationships between the various organism are used in this type of
classification
2. This assumes that organism belonging to the same taxa have common ancestor. OR the
grouping is based on Ancestry
Taxa / taxon is group of one / more populations that have some common features,
which the taxonomist considers as a unit in classification, it may be of any rank like
KDCOFGS, ex – mammals, heat, rice, grasses, dicots are taxa.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Cladogram (family tree) of biological group.
A clade is group of organisms that are all descended from a common ancestor and
include all the descendants of ancestors.
The ancestor can be known or unknown member of clade can be extant or extinct.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831
SUNSHIELD CLASSES
All progress, change, and Success is based on a foundation at convenience
Sometimes there are no fossil evidence to support phylogenetic relationship, therefore there are some
methods to find close relationship in such case
1.






2.
Numerical Taxonomy / phonetics
All the observable characters [internal and external] are considered without any assumptions
Several hundreds of characters are considered
Each character is given equal importance
Number and codes are assigned to all the characters
The data are then processes by computers – by statistical analysis.
This method groups organism based on overall similarities.
Cytotaxonomy –it groups organism based on cytological information like chromosome number,
structure, behavior etc.
3. Chemotaxonomy- it group organism by using the chemical constituent [mainly secondary
metabolites] of the plant to resolve confusions.
ADDRESS: INFRONT OF SHRAVAN KANTA PALACE PLOT NO. 10,ABOVE AXIS BANK,
AYODHYA BYPASS ROAD, BHOPAL ,Pin code 462022, Cont.No. 07552625412, 7697542831