The Five Kingdoms

Kingdoms

plants

monera

protistafungi

animalsToday, we are going to look, in detail, at the other three major

kingdoms in our natural world.

LO: To understand how microorganisms are classified

Microorganisms

Micro-organism

Monera

Bacteria

Protista

Protozoa Algae

Fungi

Yeast Mould Mushrooms

• Can only be seen with a microscope.• Found everywhere.• Many hundreds would fit on the full stop at the end of this sentence.

What Are Microorganisms?

A magnified image of a household dust mite.

Some animals and plants are microorganisms. Examples include dust mites and plankton.

Photo courtesy of @flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence – attribution

Plankton are microscopic organisms drifting in fresh or sea

water, including plants and animals.

What Are Microorganisms?

Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms. Bacteria are found in diverse habitats all

over the Earth.

This image was produced by a scanning electron microscope. It shows a clump of

staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria that is typically found growing on human skin,

usually harmlessly.

What Are Microorganisms?

Sometimes viruses are called microorganisms, but they are

not really alive. They are infectious agents that can

replicate only inside the cells of living things. Scientists disagree on whether or not to call viruses

microorganisms. In this lesson we will consider them to be

unusual microorganisms.This image is a scanning electron micrograph of an influenza virus

particle. This microorganism could cause you to have the flu.

Mould is the common word for any fungus

that grows on food or other materials.

Other microorganisms are fungi, such as mould, yeast and Penicillium.

Penicillium fungus is used to make the

antibiotic penicillin.

Yeast is a microscopic fungus that can be used to raise bread

dough.

Kingdom Monera (bacteria)• Single-celled organisms• Can cause illness• Can also be helpful - bacteria are used to make

cheese and yoghurt!

E. Coli bacteria

There are 40 million bacterial cells in just 1 gram of soil!

Kingdom Protista: Protozoa

The Plasmodium species is responsible for 85% of

malaria cases.

• Many different types that vary in size, shape, how they feed and how they move

• Many cause disease

Kingdom Protista: Algae

• Most common in water and on surfaces of moist soil, wood & rocks

• Very diverse in structure & size -ranges from microscopic to 60 metre long kelps found in the sea!

Photo: Brendan Landis

Kingdom Fungi: Yeast

• Microscopic• Single-celled

• When bread is made, yeast is added to the dough to make it rise

Yeast magnified 600 times

Kingdom Fungi: MouldMagnified 90 times

• Multi-cellular

• Grows on decaying food

• Penicillin (an antibiotic) is made from mould and it fights infections caused by bacteria

Kindgom Fungi: Mushrooms

• Multi-cellular• Look like plants, but do not produce their own food

Some fungi start from microscopic filaments which grow bigger and bigger until we can

see them with our eye.

Demonstrating your understanding

• Your task is to create a poster using your notes about the 3 other major kingdoms in our natural world.

• Challenge: include a 3-way Venn diagram to accurately present any links between the kingdoms.