The Mind-Boggling Diversity of Life

1. The Mind-Boggling Diversity of Life • The Eukarya domain contains four kingdoms • Protista • Plantae • Fungi • Animalia • Eukaryotes evolved sometime after prokaryotes populated the Earth

2. The Dawn of Eukarya • Key evolutionary features of eukaryotes: • Presence of a nucleus • Membrane-bound internal compartments • Larger cell size • Sexual reproduction • Multicellular (not all are though)

3. Eukaryotes Have Subcellular Compartmentalization and Larger Cells • Eukaryotic DNA is in a nucleus • Increased complexity allows eukaryotes to function with greater efficiency • Eukaryotes are thousands of times larger in volume than prokaryotes

4. Sexual Reproduction Increases Genetic Diversity • Sexual reproduction increases genetic diversity by producing offspring that are different from each other and from both parents.

5. Protista: The First Eukaryotes

6. Protista: The First Eukaryotes • The protists include any organism that do not fit into the other kingdom classifications • Shared Derived Traits: • Simple organization • No specialized tissues • Can be mobile using a flagella, cilia, or pseudopodia

7. Protista: The First Eukaryotes • Live in almost any environment that contains liquid water • Many protists, such as the algae, are photosynthetic

8. Protists are Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, or Mixotrophs • What is an autotroph? What is a producer? • What is an heterotroph? What is a consumer? • What is an mixotrophs?

9. Protists are Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, or Mixotrophs • Algae are autotrophic producers that use energy from sunlight to carry out photosynthesis and release oxygen gas as a by-product

10. Algae as an Energy Source?

11. Protists are Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, or Mixotrophs • Heterotrophic protists rely on other organisms for energy

12. Some Heterotrophs ProtistsAre Pathogens • Some of the best-known protists are disease-causing pathogens • Malaria --- Giardia

13. Protists are Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, or Mixotrophs • Mixotrophs obtain energy from a variety of sources, depending on environmental conditions • Photosynthesize • Consumer • W2L: How is this adventitious for the mixotroph? Euglena viridis

14. Fungi: A World of Decomposers

15. Fungi • Shared derived trait: Fungal cells have a protective cell wall that produce chitin to protect the cell and give the fungus structure • Fungi can be multicellular or single-celled species • DNA comparisons show that fungi are more closely related to humans than to plants!

16. Fungi • The body of a multicellular fungus is called the mycelium and is made up of many mycelial strands of hyphae

17. Fungi Play a Key Role as Decomposers • Fungi are heterotrophs that decompose organic materials • Fungi are the most important decomposers on land • W2L: What do you think would happen if there were no more fungus in the world?

18. Fungi Can be Dangerous Parasites • Parasitic fungi decomposes the tissue of living organisms Zygomycosis Ring “worm” Athlete's Foot Yeast

19. Fungal Parasites • The carpenter ant (genus Campanotus) is infected by a parasitic fungi of the genus Cordyceps, which changes the behavior of their host • spores attach to the surface of the ant and enter the ant’s body • mycelia grow inside the ant’s body absorbing soft tissues but avoid vital organs • When the fungus is ready to reproduce, the mycelia grow into the ant’s brain! • The fungus produces chemicals in the brain causing the ant to climb to the top of a plant and latch on • The fungus then devours the ant’s brain, killing the host releasing clusters of spores into the air completing the life cycle of the fungus

20. Lichens and Mycorrhizae: Collaborations between Kingdoms • Symbiosis is the process of two organisms working together in close association • Fungi have formed beneficial relationships with members of almost every kingdom

21. Lichens Contain a Fungus and a Photosynthetic Microbe • A lichen is a positive association between: • a photosynthetic microbe (algae or cyanobacteria) and a fungus • Lichens are pioneers of barren environments, helping to facilitate soil formation

22. Mycorrhizae are Beneficial Associations Between a Fungus and a Plant’s Root • Mycorrhizae are beneficial associations between a fungus and the plant root • Plant gets more water with Mycorrhizae • Mycorrhizae gets sugars from plant

23. Plantae

24. Plantae • Shared derived trait: Plants are multicellular autotrophs that use specialized organelles called chloroplasts to carry out photosynthesis

25. Plantae • Shared derived trait: cell walls made with cellulose

26. Plantae • Bryophytes • earliest land plants • mosses, liverwort, and hornwort • Gymnosperms • conifers • Angiosperms • flowering plants

27. Plants Had to Adapt to Life on Land • In order to evolve on land, plants developed a waxy cuticle that prevents them from drying out

28. Plants Had to Adapt to Life on Land • Stomata are pores that open and close to allow the carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis to enter the leaves

29. Plants: Vascular System • Vascular tissue: • Phloem • Transports food molecules like sugar • Flows down • Xylem • transports water and dissolved nutrients • Flows up

30. Male Cone Gymnosperms • Gymnosperms were the first plants to evolve pollen and seeds • The evolution of seeds contributed to their success • Pollen • contains sperm cells • dry and powdery • produced in great quantities • Seed • plant embryo and a short supply of food encased in a protective seed coat Female Cone

31. Angiosperms • Angiosperms produce flowers and fruit • Most abundant and diverse group of plants • Contain both male and female structures • Bright petals, odors, and sugary nectar are used to attract pollinators

32. Plants Are the Basis of Land Ecosystems and Provide Many Valuable Products • Nearly all organisms on land depend on plants for food

33. Plants • Plants have value when left in nature as well • Preventing runoff and erosion • Recycle carbon dioxide from the atmosphere • Produce oxygen to breath

34. Little Shop of Horrors?!

35. White Plant?! • Ghost plant, where doe it get its energy? • a non-photosynthetic plant that parasitizes mycorrhizal partners of other plants Monotropauniflora

36. Biology is a little Messy • What is one of the main shared derived traits of plants? W2L: How can you explain the Ghost Plant then? Is it technically not a plant?

37. Cool Thought! • What if there were plants on another planet?