BTBio-122 Plant Diversity

• BTBio-122 (Biodiversity) is the course name.
• The spring semester of this course will be in 2025.
• Lectures are scheduled for Sundays from 8-11 a.m.
• Labs are on Saturdays from 2-4 p.m.
• The course is under the Biotechnology Department.
• Prof. Ahmad K. Hegazy is the professor for this course, from the Dept. of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University.
• Lecture and lab materials for BTBio 122 Biodiversity, cannot be used for any other course without Prof. Hegazy's approval.

Plant Diversity

• The lecture discusses the diversity of the plant kingdom.
• It addresses why botanical diversity is studied for biotechnology applications.
• Modern plants developed adaptations for life on land.
• Plants evolved from plant-like protists, specifically green algae.
• The first plants were similar to today's mosses and dependent on water.
• Angiosperms are the majority of plants alive today, also known as flowering plants.
• Plants have evolved to thrive in diverse land habitats.

Plant Cladogram

• Mosses (nonvascular plants) Bryophytes have 15,600 species.
• Ferns (vascular & seedless plants)- Pterophytes have 11,000 species.
• Gymnosperms (vascular & naked seeds)- Cone-bearing Plants have 760 species.
• Angiosperms (vascular & covered seeds)- Flowering Plants have 245,000 species.

Viruses

• Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites.
• Viruses are host-specific; they can be specific to bacteriophages, animals, or plants.
• Genetic material determines if a virus is a DNA or RNA virus.
• Most common shape of a virus is icosahedral, some are helical.
• Viruses contain a protein capsid and genetic material.
• Some animal viruses have an envelope with glycoprotein spikes.
• Lytic and lysogenic are the two life cycles of viruses.
• Viral replication includes viral replication strategies and cycles.
• Viral Replication cycles include binding/entry, uncoating, genome replication, protein production, assembly, and budding.
• Host cell tropism is determined by receptors.
• Viruses and prions are not considered cellular or living organisms.
• Viruses are simple, only containing nucleic acid surrounded by a protein coat.
• Prions contain only a single strand of protein.

Bacteria

• Typical prokaryotes.
• Three major shapes include cocci, bacilli, and spiral.
• Bacteria can be autotrophic or heterotrophic.
• Autotrophs are photoautotrophs or chemoautotrophs.
• Heterotrophs are parasites or saprophytes.
• Reproduction occurs through binary fission.
• Transformation, also known as transduction, is a mode of genetic material transfer from one bacterial cell to another through a virus, without direct contact, and conjugation.

Cyanobacteria

• Blue-green algae in fresh and marine water.
• A typical prokaryotic living organism.
• An autotroph has photosynthesis machinery similar to higher plants.
• Cyanobacteria lack chloroplasts but contain chlorophyll and other pigments like phycocyanin, phycoerythrin, and carotene.
• Exists in three forms: unicellular, colonial, and filaments.
• Some filament cyanobacteria have heterocysts to fix N₂ to ammonia, like Nostoc.

Protista

• Algae belong to the Kingdom Protista.
• Cyanophyta (Blue – Green Algae) is a division.
• Cyanophyceae is a class.

Protozoa

• Protozoa are unicellular and heterotrophic.
• Animal-like and motile, and can be free-living or parasitic.
• Diverse shapes and sizes, including elongated and oval forms.
• Size ranges from 5-10 um to 1-2 mm.
• Capable of sexual or asexual reproduction.
• Examples include Amoebas, Paramecium

Protist Lineages

• Six identified lineages include Euglenozoa, Alveolata, Stramenopila, Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta, and Choanoflagellida.

Algae

• Algae are eukaryotic living organisms.
• Autotrophic, carry out photosynthesis, resulting in oxygen release from water photolysis.
• Mainly aquatic.
• Primitive algae are classified as Protista; complex multicellular types are placed in the plant kingdom.
• Forms can be unicellular, filaments and colonial.
• Classification is based on cellular structure, pigment composition, and food storage particles.

Algal Features

• Common pigments are in addition to chlorophyll a.
• Green algae, including Chlorophyceae, Ulvophyceae, and Charophyceae, are unicellular, filamentous, or colonial.
• Chlorophyll b is their pigment.
• Starch is a storage product.
• Mainly cellulose is their cell wall.
• Brown algae, Phaeophyta, are filamentous and multicellular.
• Their pigments are Chlorophyll c and fucoxanthin.
• Laminarin, mannitol, and lipids are their storage products.
• Cellulose and alginates are their cell walls.
• Red algae, Rhodophyta, are multicellular.
• Their pigments are Chlorophyll d and phycobilins.
• Modified starch is their storage product.
• Cellulose, agar, and carrageenan are their cell walls.
• Golden algae, Chrysophyceae, are unicellular.
• Their pigments are Chlorophyll c and fucoxanthin.
• Chrysolaminarin and lipids are their storage products.
• Silica and calcium carbonate are their cell walls.

Euglenoids

• Most live in freshwater
• About one-third are autotrophic, and the rest are heterotrophic.
• A pellicle, made of interlocking proteinaceous strips in a helical pattern for flexibility, lies within the plasma membrane.
• Stigma is a light-sensitive organ for orientation toward light.
• Euglena have flagella attached to the reservoir and contain numerous chloroplasts.

Chlorophyta

• Green algae are ancestors of the plant kingdom.
• An extensive fossil record exists, dating back 900 million years.
• Mostly aquatic.
• Chlamydomonas is a well-known genus.
• Chlorophyta did not give rise to land plants.

Pandorina

• Pandorina is a primitive colony with no division of labor.
• Each cell has: two cilia, two contractile vacuales, eye spot, nucleus & cytoplasm, Cup-shaped chloroplast, Pyrenoid and Reserved food.

Volvox

• Volvox is an advanced colony with division of labour.
• Volvox has 4 different cell types including Somatic cells, Gonidia, Antheridia, and Oogonia.

Stramenopila

• This includes brown algae, diatoms, and oomycetes.
• Brown algae are conscipicuous seaweeds.
• It has alternation of generations.
• Diatoms are photosynthetic, unicellular organisms with double shells of opaline silica.

Rhodophyta

• Red algae range in size from microscopic to very large.
• Origin is a source of controversy.
• It is tentatively treated as a sister clade of green algae (Chlorophyta).

Slim Mold (lower fungi)

• Slim mold is a lower fungi, in Protista and protomycota.
• Slim mold is similar to fungi, but distinct.
• The are Heterotroph.
• They live in cool, shady moist places in nature on decaying wood, dead leaves or other damp organic matter.

Fungi

• The fungi aren't true plants.
• They do not contain chlorophyll.
• They are more closely related to animals than plants.
• Their cell walls contains chitin.

Fungal Elements and Phylogeny

• Fundamental elements include spores, hyphae, mycelium and haustorium.
• The main groups of Fungi include Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Glomeromycota, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota.
• Fungi have been around since the Ordovician period around 450 million years ago.

Unicellular Fungi

• These are unicellular members of the zygomycetes, ascomycetes, and basidiomycetes.
• Yeasts are unicellular fungi; budding is mitosis followed by asymmetrical cell division.

Multicellular Fungi

• Body is composed of tubular filaments called hyphae with cell walls made of chitin.
• Some hyphae have incomplete cross walls called septa and are called septate.
• Hyphae without septa are called coenocytic.

Fungal Examples

• Rhizopus (Black Bread Mold) is classified under the kingdom Fungi, division Zygomycota, and class Zygomycetes.
• Aspergillus is classified under the kingdom Fungi, division Ascomycota [Sac - Fungi], and class Ascomycetes.
• Penicillium is classified under the kingdom Fungi, division Ascomycota [Sac- fungi], and class Ascomycetes.

Fungal Anatomy

• Structure of multicellular fungi (muchroom) includes spore-producing gills which produce spores,
• It has a cap, underground hyphae and a stalk (stipe).

Fungal Reproduction

• Chytridiomycota (chytrids) have motile spores with flagella.
• Zygomycota (zygote fungi) have a resistant zygosporangium as a sexual stage.
• Ascomycota (sac fungi) has sexual spores borne internally in sacs called asci.
• Glomeromycota (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi) form spores asexually.
• Basidiomycota (club fungi) have sexual spores borne externally on club-shaped structures called basidia.
• Asexual reproduction in fungi involves production of haploid spores in sporangia, production of naked spores called conidia, cell division by unicellular fungi via fission or budding, and breakage of the mycelium.
• Sexual reproduction in fungi is genetically different, Individuals of the same type (type + or type -) cannot mate.

Lichens

• Lichens are a combinations of fungus and photosynthetic organisms.
• The fungus is mostly ascomycetes
• Photosynthetic partner is cyanobacterium or alga, or both.
• Species are named for fungal component.
• Lichens can survive the harshest environments on Earth.
• They are very sensitive to toxic compounds, and good indicators of air pollution.
• They serve as great ecological markers and indicators.
• They are used as an early medicinal remedy.