What do you know about kingdoms of life
In 1969,
Whittaker described a system of classification that distinguished between
kingdom according to cellular organization and mode of nutrition. According to
this system members of kingdom monera are bacteria and cyanobacteria. They are
prokaryotes members of kingdom protista are eukaryotic and consist of single
cells or colonies of cells. Members of kingdom plantae are eukaryotic,
multi-cellular and photosynthetic. Plants have walled cells and are usually non
motile. Members of kingdom fungi are also eukaryotic and multi-cellular. They
also have walled cells and are usually non motile. Fungi are decomposers.
Members of kingdom animalia are eukaryotic and multi-cellular and they usually
feed by ingesting other organisms or parts of other organisms. Their cells lack
walls and they are usually motile.
For the first
two billion years of life on the earth, living forms were prokaryotic microbes.
Molecular studies of variations in base sequences of ribosomal RNA from more
than two thousand organisms are providing evidence of relationship rooted
within this two billion year period. Emerging picture is that five kingdoms do
not represent distinct evolutionary lineages.
Evolutionary Conservation:
Ribosomal RNA is excellent for studying the evolution of early life on earth. It
is an ancient molecule and it is present and retains its function in virtually
all organisms. In addition ribosomal RNA changes very slowly. This showness of
change is called evolutionary conservation. It indicates that the protein
producing machinery of a cell can tolerate little change and still retain its
vital function. Closely related organisms (recently diverged from a common
ancestory) are likely to have similar ribosomal RNAs. Distantly related
organisms have ribosomal RNAs that are less similar but the differences are
small enough that the relationship to some ancestral molecules are still
apparent.
Method:
Molecular systematic compare the base sequences in ribosomal RNA of different
organisms to find the number of positions in RNAs where bases are different.
They enter these data into computer programmes and examine all possible
relationships among different organisms. The systematic then decide which
arrangement of the organisms best explains the data.
Conclusion:
Studies of ribosomal RNA have let systematic to the conclusion that all life
shares a common ancestor and that there are three major evolutionary lineages.
Each of these lineage is called domain. Archara are prokaryotic microbes that
live in extreme environments such as high temperature rift valleys on the ocean
floor or high salt or acidic environments. They environments may reflect
conditions on the earth at the time of life’s origin. The archara are the most
primitive life forms known. Ancient archaras gave rise to two other domains of
organisms Eubacteria and Eukarya. Eubacteria are true bacteria and are
prokaryotic micro-organisms. Eukarya include all eukaryotic organisms eukaraya
diverged more recently related to Archara than Eubacteria to Archara.
Eubacteria to
Archara:
Eukarya arose
about 1.5 billion years ago. Photosynthetic accumulation of oxygen in the
atmosphere probably resulted in the production of ozone which shielded the
planet from ultra violet light. Eukarya then underwent late, but raid,
evolutionary diversification into modern lineages of protests, fungi, plants
and animals.
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