Microbes and Fungi

Biggest organism on Earth

Honey Mushroom (Armillaria), covering 3 square miles.

Tallest tree

Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), 379 feet tall.

Longest migration

Arctic tern, flying 44,100 miles roundtrip.

Human microbiome

Trillions of bacteria weighing 2-5 pounds inside us.

Prokaryotes

Organisms that lack a membrane-bound nucleus and organelles.

Protists definition

Eukaryotes that are not plants, animals, or fungi.

Prokaryote cell shapes

Cocci (spherical), Bacilli (rod), and Spirochete (spiral).

Bacterial cell wall types

Peptidoglycan (Gram-positive) and Lipids/carbs (Gram-negative).

Flagella and Fimbriae

Prokaryote projections for swimming and sticking to surfaces.

Photoautotrophs

Capture energy from sunlight and breathe in CO2 for carbon.

Chemoheterotrophs

Get energy and carbon from organic compounds by breaking down other organisms.

Cyanobacteria

Gram-negative photoautotrophs that caused the first mass extinction of anaerobes.

Archaea extremes

Halophiles (salt), Thermophiles (heat), and Methanogens (no oxygen).

Protist ecosystem roles

Major primary producers making about 50% of Earth's oxygen.

Protist supergroups

SAR, Excavata, Unikonta, and Archaeplastida.

Alternation of generations

Alternating multicellular haploid (gametophyte) and diploid (sporophyte) phases.

Fungi nutrition

Heterotrophs that digest food externally via absorption.

Mycelium

A mass of threadlike filaments called hyphae forming a fungus structure.

Glomeromycetes

Form mycorrhizae, an essential plant-root symbiosis for 80% of land plants.

Basidiomycetes

Club fungi like mushrooms, primarily decomposers of wood.

Viruses

Non-living infectious agents consisting of nucleic acid enclosed in a protein coat.

Plant adaptations to land

Waxy cuticle, stomata, vascular tissue, and seeds.

Angiosperms

Flowering plants that produce seeds enclosed within a fruit.

Gymnosperms

Plants with naked seeds, typically cones like conifers.

Lichens

Symbiotic associations between a fungus and a photosynthetic alga or cyanobacterium.

Endosymbiotic theory

Theory that mitochondria and chloroplasts originated from engulfed prokaryotes.

Vascular plants

Plants with specialized tissues like xylem and phloem to transport water and nutrients.

Non-vascular plants

Simple plants lacking specialized vascular tissue, relying on diffusion and osmosis.

Xylem

Tissue that transports water and dissolved minerals upward from the roots.

Phloem

Tissue that transports sugars and organic products of photosynthesis throughout the plant.

Examples of non-vascular plants

Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts.

Examples of vascular plants

Ferns, gymnosperms, and flowering plants.