chart of classification of kingdom monera, sub-kingdoms of monera archea and eubacteria, gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria

Classification of Kingdom Monera

shedule tag20 Feb, 2024
shedule tagBiology

Table of Contents

Introduction to Kingdom Monera

Monera kingdom is solely made up of prokaryotes. The monerans are composed of the unicellular prokaryotic cell which lacks nuclear membrane and membrane-bound organells.

Monerans are found to be living in some of the most extreme habitats like hot springs, extremely salty areas, under high temperatures, etc.

kingdom Monera is classified into two sub-kingdoms Archaebacteria and Eubacteria.

Classification of Archaebacteria

These bacteria are special because they live in some of the harshest habitats they have special cell wall structures and this feature is responsible for their survival in extreme conditions.

Based on their habitat they are classified into three groups

  • Bacteria that live in extremely salty areas are called   Halophiles.
  • Bacterias living under hot springs are called  Thermoacidophiles.
  • Bacteria that live in marshy areas are called  Methanogens. They are also found in the gut of several ruminant animals.

Classification of Eubacteria

Eubacteria are also referred to as true bacteria as they possess rigid cell walls made up of peptidoglycan.

Based on their cell wall they can be classified into two groups.

  • Gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test.
  • Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram-staining method.

Based on their shape they can be classified into four groups.

  • Cocci (spherical shape)
  • Bacilli (rod-shape)
  • Vibrio (comma-shape)
  • Spirilla (Spiral-shape)

Based on their nutrition they can be further divided into two groups Autotorphs and Heterotrophs. However, the majority of bacteria are heterotrophs they depend on other organisms or dead organic matter.

Autotrophic Bacteria

  • Bacteria like Cyanobacteria have chlorophyll and can synthesize food in the presence of sunlight such bacteria are called Phototrophs. Some of these organisms can fix atmospheric nitrogen in the specialized cells called heterocysts. eg. Nostoc and Anabaena
  • Bacteria that oxidize organic substances like nitrate and ammonia and use the energy released for ATP production are called Chemotrophs.

Heterotrophic Bacteria

  • Saprophytic Bacteria are bacteria that are typically soil-dwelling and utilize saprotrophic nutrition as their primary energy source.
  • Symbiotic Bacteria are bacteria that live in symbiosis with another organism. A famous example of this is rhizobia living in root nodules of legume roots.
  • Some bacteria are pathogenic and cause damage to human beings and crops these types of bacteria are called  Parasitic Bacteria. Cholera(Vibrio cholerae), Typhoid(Salmonella Typhi), Tetanus(Clostridium tetani), etc are some diseases caused by parasitic bacteria.
Advertisement