1.

1 Characteristics of Living Organisms

•In order for something to be considered 'living', it must fulfil specific
criteria that are true of all living organisms
•These criteria can be remembered using the acronym MRS GREN

•If something does not carry out all of these life processes, it is either
dead or non-living
•Viruses are a good example of non-living particles/agents
 Nutrition
•Organisms must obtain food to provide energy
•Energy is necessary to carry out life processes e.g. movement, respiration and excretion

Autotrophs make their own food whereas heterotrophs obtain it from a range of food sources.
 Respiration
•Respiration is a chemical reaction carried out in all living organisms
•Energy is released from glucose either in the presence of oxygen (aerobic respiration) or the absence of oxygen
(anaerobic respiration)
•The reactions ultimately result in the production of carbon dioxide and water as waste products
•Energy is transferred in the form of ATP

The equation for aerobic respiration

 Excretion
•Chemical reactions that take place inside living cells are described as metabolic reactions
•Metabolic reactions produce waste products, some of which may be toxic
•These toxic products must be eliminated from the body
•Excretion is the removal of toxic materials and substances from organisms

Excretion in plants, the waste products and the difference between day and night .
Excretion in humans, the waste products and organs involved .
 Response to Surroundings
•The sensitivity of an organism refers to its ability to detect and respond to stimuli in its surroundings
•Responding to the environment around them gives an organism the best chances of survival

The nervous system and endocrine system allow humans to respond to their environment.
Phototropism and geotropism allow plants to respond to their environment.
 Movement
•Movement is an action by an organism causing a change of position or place
•The movement of an organism from place to place is called locomotion
•Plants cannot move from place to place but can change their orientation
• For example, sunflowers track the sun and so change their orientation throughout the day

Sunflowers track the sun throughout the day.

 Control

•Living organisms must control their internal environment in order to keep conditions within required limits
•This is called homeostasis

Thermoregulation is an example of homeostasis required to maintain a body temperature of 37°C.

Plants maintain an optimum temperature through transpiration
 Reproductio
n
•Reproduction is the process that leads to the production of more of the same kind of organism
•Reproduction is fundamental to the survival of a population and ultimately, the species
•There are different types of reproduction: sexual and asexual
Sexual reproduction involves the fusing of two gametes to Asexual reproduction in bacteria involves creating exact
form a zygote that contains DNA from both parents. copies of the parent cell.
 Growth

•Growth is defined as a permanent increase in size

•In animals, an individual grows larger between the zygote and adult stage with changes in proportion or shape
•In plants, an individual grows larger throughout their whole life with new shoots, leaves, branches etc forming
year after year
 How Organisms are Classified
•There are millions of species of organisms on Earth
•A species is defined as a group of organisms that can reproduce to produce fertile offspring
•These species can be classified into groups by the features that they share e.g. all mammals have bodies covered in
hair, feed young from mammary glands and have external ears (pinnas)

Species - group of organism that can reproduce to produce fertile offsprings

species are almost identical in their anatomy, physiology and behaviour.

The Binomial system of naming organism is an internationally agreed system

in which the scientific name of an organism is made up of two parts showing
the genus and species
Binomial means ‘two names’; the first name gives the genus and the second
gives the species.
 The Binomial System
• Organisms were first classified by a Swedish naturalist called Carl
Linnaeus in a way that allows the subdivision of living organisms into
smaller and more specialised groups
• The species in these groups have more and more features in common
the more subdivided they get
• He named organisms in Latin using the binomial system where the
scientific name of an organism is made up of two parts starting with
the genus (always given a capital letter) and followed by
the species (starting with a lower case letter)
• When typed binomial names are always in italics (which indicates
they are Latin) e.g. Homo sapiens
• The sequence of classification is:
Exam Tip
• Kingdom, The order of classification can be
remembered by using a mnemonic like
• Phylum,
• Class,
• Order,
• Family,
• Genus,
• Species
 Taxonomic Hierarchy

• The word “Taxonomy” is derived from a Greek word –

“taxis”, meaning arrangement or division, and “nomos”,
meaning method.
• Taxonomy is a branch of Biology that refers to the process
of classifying different living species.
• A taxon is referred to as a group of organisms classified
as a unit.
• Each of this level of the hierarchy is called the taxonomic
category or rank.
• In this system of classification, kingdom is always ranked
the highest followed by division, class, order, family,
genus, and species
 Kingdom
The kingdom is the highest level of classification, which is divided into subgroups at various levels. There are 5
kingdoms in which the living organisms are classified, namely, Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, and Monera.
Phylum
This is the next level of classification and is more specific than the kingdom. There are 35 phyla in kingdom Animalia.
For Example – Porifera, Chordata, Arthropoda, etc.
Class
Class was the most general rank in the taxonomic hierarchy until phyla were not introduced. Kingdom Animalia
includes 108 classes including class mammalia, reptilia, aves, etc. However, the classes used today are different from
those proposed by Linnaeus and are not used frequently.
 Order
Order is a more specific rank than class. The order constitutes one or more than one similar families. There are around 26
orders in class Mammalia such as primates, carnivora, etc.
Family
This category of taxonomic hierarchy includes various genera that share a few similarities. For eg., the families in the order
Carnivora include Canidae, Felidae, Ursidae, etc.
Genus
A group of similar species forms a genus. Some genera have only one species and is known as monotypic, whereas, some
have more than one species and is known as polytypic. For eg., lion and tiger are placed under the genus Panthera.
Species
It is the lowest level of taxonomic hierarchy. There are about 8.7 million different species on earth. It refers to a group of
organisms that are similar in shape, form, reproductive features. Species can be further divided into sub-species.
 Reflecting Evolutionary Relationships

• Classification systems aim to reflect evolutionary

relationships between species
• Traditional biological classification systems grouped organisms based
on the features that they shared
If organisms shared more similar features then they were said to be
more closely related
• In the past, scientists have encountered many difficulties when trying
to determine the evolutionary relationships of species based on this
method
• Using the physical features of species (such as colour/shape/size)
has many limitations and can often lead to the wrong classification of
species
The process of biological classification called cladistics involves organisms being grouped together according to
whether or not they have one or more shared unique characteristics derived from the group’s last common
ancestor, which are not present in more distant ancestors.
 Using DNA to Classify Organisms
• Organisms share features because they originally descend from a common ancestor
• Example: all mammals have bodies covered in hair, feed young from mammary glands and have external ears (pinnas)
• Originally, organisms were classified using morphology (the overall form and shape of the organism, e.g. whether it had wings or legs)
and anatomy (the detailed body structure as determined by dissection)
• As technology advanced, microscopes, knowledge of biochemistry and eventually DNA sequencing allowed us to classify organisms using a
more scientific approach
• Studies of DNA sequences of different species show that the more similar the base sequences in the DNA of two species, the more closely
related those two species are (and the more recent in time their common ancestor is)
• This means that the base sequences in a mammal’s DNA are more closely related to all other mammals than to any other vertebrate
groups
A
B
C
D
E
DNA sequences can show how closely related different species are
• The sequences above show that B and C are more closely related than any other species in the list as their
DNA sequences are identical except for the last but one base (B has a T in that position whereas C has an A)
• As DNA base sequences are used to code for amino acid sequences in proteins, the similarities in amino acid
sequences can also be used to determine how closely related organisms are
 Features of Organisms
Features of organisms All living organisms have certain features in common, Because they all are made
up of Cells
 Cell and its Components

c
c

A typical Animal cell A typical Plant cell

• Main features of all animals: • Main features of all plants:

• they are multicellular • they are multicellular
• their cells contain a nucleus but no cell walls or • their cells contain a nucleus, chloroplasts and
chloroplasts cellulose cell walls
• they feed on organic substances made by other living • they all feed by photosynthesis
things
 The Whittaker five-kingdom scheme

The first division of living things in the classification system is to put them into one of five kingdoms. They are:
• Animals
• Plants
• Fungi
• Protoctist
• Prokaryotes

Protoctist

Prokaryotes
It is still not easy to fit all organisms into the five-kingdom scheme.

For example,
 Many Protoctista with chlorophyll (the protophyta) show important
resemblances to some members of the algae, but the algae are classified
into the plant kingdom.

 Viruses are not included in any kingdom

 This kind of problem will always occur when we try to devise rigid
classification schemes with distinct boundaries between groups
 Three-domain scheme
• Carl Woese in 1978
• Based on ribosomal RNA structure.
• Organisms are classified into three domains and six kingdoms
• The sixth kingdom is created by splitting the Prokaryote
kingdom into two.

The domains are:

1 Archaea:
• Containing ancient prokaryotic
• Do not have a nucleus surrounded by a membrane
• They have an independent evolutionary history to
other bacteria
• their biochemistry is very different to other forms of life.
2 Eubacteria:
• prokaryotic organisms
• do not have a nucleus surrounded by a membrane.

3 Eukarya:
• organisms that have a membrane-bound nucleus.
• This domain is further subdivided into 4 kingdoms
• Protoctist, Fungus, Plant and Animal.
 Kingdom- Prokaryotes
Main features of all Prokaryotes includes
• These are the bacteria and the blue-green algae
• often unicellular
• cells have cell walls (not made of cellulose but Peptidoglycan)
• Has cytoplasm
• No nucleus (chromosomes are not organised into a nucleus)
• No mitochondria
 Bacterial structure
• Bacteria (singular: bacterium) are
• very small organisms
• consisting of single cells
• 0.01 mm or 10 µm in length
• Seen only with the higher powers of the microscope.
• Cells have cell walls (not made of cellulose but Peptidoglycan)
• Some bacteria have a slime capsule outside their cell wall.
• Inside the cell wall is the cytoplasm, which may contain granules of
glycogen, lipid and other food reserves
• Each bacterial cell contains a single chromosome, consisting of a circular A typical Bacteria

strand of DNA
• The chromosome is not enclosed in a nuclear membrane but is coiled up
to occupy part of the cell called Nucleoid
• Individual bacteria may be spherical, rod-shaped, comma- shaped or spiral
• Some have filaments, called flagella, projecting from them helping in movement and
locomotion
• Bacteria reproduce by asexual reproduction

Bacterial Reproduction
 Kingdom-Protoctists
Main features of all Protoctists
(e.g. Amoeba, Paramecium, Plasmodium) includes -
• Most are unicellular but some are multicellular
• Have their chromosomes enclosed in a nuclear membrane to
form a nucleus.
• Some may have cell walls and chloroplasts
• Meaning some protoctists photosynthesise and some feed
on organic substances made by other living things’
Euglena-
• possess chloroplasts and make their food by
photosynthesis
• These protoctists are often referred to as unicellular
‘plants’ or Protophyta

Euglena cell
• Amoeba and Paramecium take in and digest solid food
and thus resemble animals in their feeding. They may
be called unicellular ‘animals’ or protozoa
• Amoeba is a protozoan which moves by a flowing
movement of its cytoplasm
• It feeds by picking up bacteria and other microscopic
organisms as it goes. Amoeba

Paramecium
• Vorticella has a contractile stalk and feeds by creating a
current of water with its cilia.
• The current brings particles of food to the cell.
• Euglena and Chlamydomonas have chloroplasts in their
cells and feed, like plants, by photosynthesis.
Vorticella

Chlamydomonas
 Kingdom- Fungi
Main features of all fungi
(e.g. moulds, mushrooms, yeast) includes-
• Usually multicellular
• Most fungi are made up of thread-like hyphae,
• There are many nuclei distributed throughout the
cytoplasm in their hyphae – multinucleated
• Cell wall made up of Chitin
• The fungi include fairly familiar organisms such as
mushrooms, toadstools, puffballs and the bracket fungi
that grow on tree trunks

Fungal Cell
• Mould fungi grow on stale bread, cheese, fruit or other food. Many of the
mould fungi live in the soil or in dead wood.
• The yeasts are single-celled fungi
• Some fungal species are parasites, as is the bracket fungus They live in other
organisms, particularly plants, where they cause diseases which can affect crop
plants, such as the mildew Mould fungi

• While some feed by saprophytic (on dead or decaying material)

Bracket fungus

Yeast
 Kingdom- Plants

• Plants are organisms that have cells with cell walls made of
cellulose
• At least some parts of any plant are green, caused by the
presence of the pigment chlorophyll which absorbs energy
from sunlight for the process of photosynthesis
• The plant kingdom includes organisms such as ferns and
flowering plants
 Ferns
• Have leaves called fronds
• Do not produce flowers but instead reproduce by
spores produced on the underside of fronds
• Their stems, leaves and roots are very similar to those of the
flowering plants.
• The stem is usually entirely below ground and takes the form of a
structure called a rhizome. In bracken, the rhizome grows
Ferns
horizontally below ground, sending up leaves at intervals.
• The roots which grow from the rhizome are called adventitious
roots
• The stem and leaves have sieve tubes and water conducting cells
similar to those in the xylem and phloem of a flowering plant
• Ferns also have multicellular roots with vascular tissue.
 Ferns

• Ferns produce gametes but no seeds.

• The zygote gives rise to the fern plant, which then produces
single-celled spores from numerous sporangia (spore
capsules) on its leaves
• The sporangia are formed on the lower side of the leaf but
their position depends on the species of fern.
• The sporangia are usually arranged in compact groups
 Flowering plants
• Reproduce sexually by means of flowers and seeds
• Seeds are produced inside the ovary found at the base of the flower
• Can be divided into two groups – monocotyledons and dicotyledons

Monocotyledons (monocots for short),

• Have only one cotyledon in their seeds.
• Most, but not all, monocots also have long, narrow leaves
(e.g. grasses, daffodils, bluebells) with parallel leaf veins

Dicotyledons (dicots for short),

• Have two cotyledons in their seeds.
• Their leaves are usually broad and the leaf veins form a
branching network
Sunflowers are dicotyledons Wheat plants are monocotyledons
 Monocots V/S Dicots

How do you distinguish between monocotyledons and

dicotyledons?
1) Flowers
• Flowers from monocotyledons contain petals in multiples
of 3
• Flowers from dicotyledons contain petals in multiples of 4
or 5
2) Leaves
• Leaves from monocotyledons have parallel leaf veins
• Leaves from dicotyledons have reticulated leaf
veins (meaning that they are all interconnected and form a Comparing monocots and dicots

web-like network throughout the leaf)

Monocots V/S Dicots

Exam Tip
Identification of monocotyledons and
dicotyledons comes up fairly frequently in
the multiple choice paper and so it is worth
learning the two differences between their
flowers and leaves