Variety Of Living Organisms Flashcards
Plants
They are multicellular organisms - means they are made up of more than one cell
They have a cell wall which is made out of cellulose and gives the cell shape and support
They have a cell membrane
Contains chloroplasts which means they can photosynthesis.
Can store carbohydrates such as sucrose or starch
Examples of plants include maize and legumes (e.g. peas and beans)
Plants vary in size and shape
Animals
Multicellular organisms
Don’t have chloroplasts and so they can’t photosynthesise
Don’t have cell walls
Have a cell membrane
They usually have nervous co - ordination and can usually move around from one place to another
Often store carbohydrates as glycogen
Store lipids as a layer of far below the skin
Examples include mammals, insects etc.
Fungi
Some fungi such as yeast are single celled
Mushrooms, toad stones and moulds are multicellular
Most have a body called a mycelium which is made out of hyphae (fine threads) which contain more many nuclei
Cells walls made of chitin
Their cells do not contain chlorophyll and so can’t photosynthesise
Most are fed by saprotrophic nutrition - secrete digestive enzymes outside the cells onto living or dead animal or plant material and absorb the digested nutrients.
They can store carbohydrates as glycogen
Some species of fungi are pathogens
Examples include yeast, mucor, mushrooms etc
Protoctists
Single celled
Contain a nucleus
Some like Amoeba that live in pond water, have features like an animal cell, while others, like chlorella have chloroplasts and are more like plants.
A pathogenic example is Plasmodium, responsible for causing malaria.
Bacteria
Single celled
No nucleus
Contain a circular chromosome of DNA
Some can photosynthesise
Most feed off other organisms
They have a cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm and plasmids
Examples include lactobacillus bulgaricus, a rod shaped bacterium used in the production of yoghurt from milk. Or pneumococcus, a spherical bacterium that acts as the pathogen causing pneumonia
Pathogen
An organism that causes disease in another living organism. Examples are found in fungi, bacteria, protoctists and viruses.
Viruses
They are not living organisms.
They are small particles, smaller than bacteria.
They are parasitic and can reproduce only inside living cells.
They infect every type of living organism.
They have a wide variety of shapes and sizes
They have no cellular structure but have a protein coat and contain ont type of nucleus acid either DNA or RNA.
Examples include the tobacco mosaic virus that causes discolouring of the leaves of tobacco plants by preventing the formation of chloroplasts, the influenza virus that causes flu and the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
