Tree of Life

1. Tree of Life • Planet Earth is about 4.6 billion years old. • Oldest known rocks are about 3.8 billion years old. • Oldest fossils (prokaryotes) are about 3.5 billion years old.

2. Tree of Life • All living organisms on this planet share a common ancestor. • The tree of life reflects the branching pattern of speciation (phylogenetic history of life) that has occurred since the origin of life.

3. Tree of Life • There is an excellent Tree of Life website in which you can trace the branching pattern of the history of life and explore classification. • http://tolweb.org/tree/

4. Tree of Life • There is a hierarchichal classification of life in which organisms are progressively nested within larger and larger categories as more distant relatives are included in the classification (as explored previously). • The highest level of classification is the Domain of which there are three.

5. 26.22

8. Domains Bacteria and Archaea • Domain Bacteria • Domain Archaea • The domains Bacteria and Archaea are both prokaryotes (they have no nucleus and the DNA is not arranged in chromosomes). Prokaryote derived from the Greek Pro meaning before and karyon meaning a kernel [i.e. a nucleus]

9. Domain Bacteria • Includes most of the bacteria people are familiar with including disease-causing species (Salmonella; Vibriocholerae which causes cholera), nitrogen-fixing (Nitrosomonas) and parasites (Borreliaburgdorferi which causes Lyme disease).

11. Domain Bacteria • Bacteria play a major role in decomposition and many live symbiotically with other organisms including humans helping to break down or synthesize foods needed by the host.

12. Domain Archaea • The Archaea include many extremophiles, organisms that live in extreme environments. • Includes thermophiles which tolerate extreme heat (e.g. live in geysers and hot springs where temps may reach 90 degrees celsius) and halophiles (salt lovers, which live in very saline environments (e.g. Great Salt Lake, Dead Sea)

13. Archaea in hot springs

14. R. Shand, N. Arizona Univ. Archaea in dead sea

15. Archaea in hydrothermal vent Ruth Blake / Yale

16. Bacteria and Archaea • Bacteria and Archaea are both prokaryotes and their DNA is arranged in circular structures called plasmids. • However, they have substantial differences in their biochemistry, cell wall structure and other molecular details.

17. Bacteria vs. Archaea • Bacteria are inhibited by antibiotics Streptomycin and Chloramphenicol but Archaea are not. • Archaea in common with Eukarya have histone proteins associated with their DNA, have introns in their DNA, and have several kinds of RNA polymerase. Bacteria lack these features. • Archaea and Eukarya thus are members of a clade.

18. Domain Eukarya • Domain Eukarya contains the eukaryotic organisms (from Greek eu true and karyon akernal) which have a true nucleus and DNA arranged in chromosomes. • Eukaryotic cells are much larger and complex than prokaryotic cells and contain organelles such as mitochondria, chloroplasts, and lysosomes.

19. Domain Eukarya • Domain Eukarya includes three kingdoms the Plantae, Fungi and Animalia. • There are also a number of unicellular eukaryotes that may form as many as five other kingdoms. These were formerly grouped in the Protista.

20. Domain Eukarya • Plantae, Fungi and Animalia are mostly multicellular, but plants are autotrophic (produce their own food by photosynthesis) whereas the fungi and animals are heterotrophic (consume other organisms)

21. Fungi • Fungi are heterotrophs and feed by absorption. • They secrete enzymes outside their bodies (exoenzymes) which break down complex molecules to simpler ones which the fungus can absorb.

22. Fungi • Some fungi are unicellular (yeasts), but most are multicellular. • Body of multicellular fungi made up of tiny filaments called hyphae. • The hyphae form a mass called a mycelium that penetrates the medium the fungus is feeding on.

23. 31.2

24. Fungi • Mushrooms and toadstools are the familiar reproductive structures of fungi. • Fungi produce spores which may be sexually or asexually produced

25. Fungi • Fungi and Animalia share a more recent common ancestor (about 1.5 billion years ago) than they do with Plantae. • Fungi are believed to have evolved from flagellated single-celled protistans, which suggests multicellularity arose independently in Fungi and Animalia

26. Plants

29. Ancestor to land plants: Green Algae Land Plants (Embryophytes): • Bryophytes (mosses, etc.) • Ferns and relatives • Gymnosperms • Angiosperms

30. Bryophytes (Mosses, etc.)

31. Ferns and fern allies

32. Gymnosperms

33. Angiosperms

35. Plant structure and function(parts of chapters 35, 36 and 37) • Unlike animals, plants remain in one place and produce food through photosynthesis. • To carry out photosynthesis plants must obtain water and minerals from the soil, CO2 from the air, and light from the sun. • The structure of plants reflects their need to carry out these tasks.

36. Basic structure of plants • Plants have three basic organs: • Roots • Stems • Leaves • These organs are organized into two systems: the largely below-ground root system and the above-ground shoot system (stems and leaves).

37. 35.2

38. Roots • Roots perform several tasks. They • Anchor the plant in place • Absorb minerals and water • Store organic nutrients such as sugars (e.g. carrot, sugar beet, turnip).

39. Roots • Roots systems may have a central taproot with lateral roots branching off from it (e.g. dandelion). • Alternatively, a root system may have no obvious main root, but instead be a fibrous system with many small roots growing from the stem, each of which has its own lateral roots (e.g. grasses).

40. Roots • The entire root system anchors a plant in place, but absorption of water and minerals occurs mainly at the root tips. • At the root tips huge numbers of root hairs increase the surface area enormously.

41. Root hairs • Root hairs are extensions of individual epidermal root cells and are not multicellular structures (as lateral roots are).

42. Roots • Root hairs are permeable to water and adhere closely to soil particles allowing efficient absorption of water and nutrients. • Most plants forms mutually beneficial relationships with fungi, which facilitate absorption of water and minerals.

43. Mycorrhizae • The plants and fungi form mycorrhizae: symbiotic associations of plant roots united with fungal hyphae (hyphae are tiny filaments that form the bulk of a fungus). • Most plants form these symbiotic mycorrhizal relationships and they greatly enhance the plants growth. [a symbiotic relationship is a close, mutually beneficial relationship]

44. Mycorrhizae (white) growing on a root 36.10

45. Mycorrhizae • The fungal hyphae grow over the root and penetrate into it and may in some cases form a mantle or layer over the root. • The fungus benefits from a steady supply of sugar donated by the host plant.

46. 37.12

47. Mycorrhizae Plant receives numerous benefits: • Fungus greatly increases surface area for absorption (can be as much as 3 meters of hyphae per cm of plant root length). • Fungus selectively absorbs phosphate and other nutrients and supplies them to plant. • Fungus may secrete growth factors that promote root growth. • Fungus may produce antibiotics that protect the plant from pathogenic bacteria and fungi in the soil.

48. Mycorrhizae • Plant-fungus symbiosis may have been one of the early adaptations that allowed plants to colonize the land, which probably initially was quite nutrient poor. • Fossils of some of the earliest plants show mycorrhizae.

49. Shoot Systems • Shoot systems consist of stems and leaves. • Stems are elongated structures comprised of nodes and internodes. • Nodes are where leaves are attached and internodes are the sections in between.

50. 35.2