Unit 10:

The simplest living beings

1. Fungi

2. Protoctists
2.1. Protozoa
2.2. Algae

3. Bacteria

4. Viruses

Think and answer?

a. What type of organism can you see in the photograph?

b. What type of cells are these organisms made up of?

c. Why are they included in the microorganisms?

d. Can you name other types or microorganisms?

UNIT OBJECTIVES

In this unit you will learn:

 To identify the main characteristics of microorganisms
 To classify the simplest living beings into groups
 To describe the structure of bacteria and viruses
 To describe the way microorganisms perform vital functions
 To describe the main characteristics of Protoctists and Fungi.
 To explain why viruses are not living beings
UNIT 10: The simplest livings beings Biology and Geology (1 st ESO)

1. FUNGI KINGDOM
Fungi are unicellular or multicellular organisms (without real tissues)
They have eukaryotic plant cells, but their cellular wall is made of chitin, not cellulose.
These cells are joined together forming threads, called hyphae. The vegetative body of fungus is
the mycelium that is formed by the mass of hyphae. This mycelium lives under the soil.

a) Vital functions
Nutrition
Fungi are heterotrophs. They feed on organic matter. There are three types of fungi:
- Saprophytes. They feed on decomposed matter.
- Parasites. They feed on other living being that is harmed. These fungi produce diseases.
- Symbionts. They live with other living being and both obtain benefits.
The most important symbiotic fungi are:
- Liquens (formed by a fungus and an alga)
- Mycorrhizas (formed by a fungus and a conifer)

Reproduction
They have sexual and asexual reproduction.
When they reproduce sexually, they produce spores.
When a spore germinates, it produces a mycelium
that grows and produce a structure called
the fruiting body (mushroom).

b) Classification
We can classify fungi in three groups, without scientific value:
- Yeasts
They are unicellular fungi.
Many are parasites, but others are very useful for us.
Yeasts perform fermentation that transforms certain substances into food such us bread,
wine and beer.
- Moulds
They are multicellular and microscopic fungi.
Many are parasites and others are decomposers, such as bread mould or fruit mould.
- Mushrooms and toadstools
They are multicellular.
Some are edible (mushrooms) and other poisonous (toadstools)

READING ACTIVITIES
1.1. Relate and order the pictures and the labels that correspond to a fungus life cycle.

A spore germinates. Fruiting body matures The mycelium begins The fruiting body New spores are
and forms spores. to grow. begins to form. released.

1.2. Listen and indicate which type of fungi is described (saprophytes, parasites or symbionts)

1.3. Fungi and plants have eukaryotic plant cells. What characteristics allow us to distinguish
between them?
UNIT 10: The simplest livings beings Biology and Geology (1 st ESO)

2. PROTOCTISTS
The Protoctista Kingdom includes a large number of creatures than cannot be classify in other
kingdoms.

All the Protoctists have eukaryotic cells, but they can be:
- autotrophic or heterotrophic
- unicellular or multicellular (without true tissues)

We can differentiate:
- Protoctists that are similar to animals (protozoa)
- Protoctists that are similar to plants (algae)

This group is so diverse that this kingdom will probably be divided in the future.

2.1. Protozoa
These organisms are unicellular and heterotrophic.
They have eukaryotic animal cells.
They can only be seen under a microscope.
We can find them in the soil or in water (zooplankton). Other ones are parasites and produce
diseases.
They have asexual reproduction. This can be by:
- Bipartition (dividing the cell mother in two)
- Sporulation (producing spores)

They can be classified into four groups, according to the way they move:

- Flagellates.
They move using flagella.
E. g. Trypanosome. (It is responsible for sleeping sickness
and spreads by Tse-tse fly)

- Ciliates.
They move using cilia (they are organelles similar to flagella,
but much shorter and very numerous)
E. g. Paramecium (swimmer)
and Vorticella (live join to the substrate)

- Rizopods
They move using pseudopodia (they are extensions
of their cytoplasm, that they use to feed too)
E. g. Amoeba and Entamoeba (It is responsible for dysentery)

- Sporozoans.
They don’t move.
E. g. Plasmodium (It is responsible for malaria
and spreads by Anopheles mosquito)

1.2. ALGAE

This group includes organisms that can be unicellular or multicellular. They have
eukaryotic plants cells. All algae are autotrophic and do photosynthesis.

They can live attached to substrate (benthonic algae) or not (planktonic algae).

For a long time, they were included in the Plants Kingdom, but today they are in the
Protoctists, because these organisms don’t have true tissues or true organs.
UNIT 10: The simplest livings beings Biology and Geology (1 st ESO)

A. MULTICELLULAR ALGAE
Most of them are marines, but some live in fresh water. The largest and most complex
marine algae are called seaweed.

Multicellular algae do not have true tissues, but they have structures similar to plant organs:
- Blades (false “leaves”)
- Stipe (false “stem”) sometimes with floats (the keep up the algae)
- Holdfast (false “roots” that hold them to the substrate, but do not absorb nutrients)

They reproduce by alternation of generations, that is in one generation they reproduce

asexually and in the following generation, they reproduce sexually.

They are classified in three groups according to the photosynthetic pigments they have:
- Green algae
Their most important pigment is chlorophyll (green pigment)
Most part of them live in fresh water.
There are unicellular and multicellular.
They live near the surface.
They seem to be the ancestors of plants.
- Brown algae
Their most important pigment gives them brown colour.
They are marine and multicellular.
It is the group with the most complex structure and largest forms.
They live in middle depth water.
- Red algae
Their most important pigment gives them a red colour.
They are unicellular or multicellular, and marines.
They live attached to the substrate and at great depth in the ocean.

B. UNICELLULAR ALGAE
There are several groups of unicellular algae. They formed the phytoplankton.
They can form colonies (group of unicellular organisms that live joined together and look
like a multicellular organism, but without true tissues or division of work among the cells).

READING ACTIVITIES

2.1. The following photographs are different types of Protozoa. Complete the charts.
What criterion do we follow to classify them?

Group…………………... Group:………………….. Group:…………………. Group:………………….

E. g.…………………..... E. g. …………………….. E. g. ……………………. E. g. ……………………

2.2. Algae was classified in the Plant Kingdom for a long time, but now they are
included in the Protoctista Kingdom. Why?

2.3. Listen and indicate what group of Protoctists (algae or protozoa) is described
in each sentence.
UNIT 10: The simplest livings beings Biology and Geology (1 st ESO)

3. BACTERIA
Bacteria are the oldest and simplest form of life.
Bacteria appeared more than 3,500 million years ago.
All the other living beings have evolved
from creatures similar to bacteria.

They are among the smallest living beings.

Their size goes from 1 μm to 10 μm.
It means that they can only be seen
under a microscope.

Bacteria belong to the Monera Kingdom

and all of them are unicellular and prokaryotes.

This is the most successful group of living beings. Bacteria are everywhere. The reasons are:
- They have a great diversity of nutrition.
- They reproduce very fast.
- They are adapted to all the environments.
- They are very resistant. Many of them live in extreme conditions, like acidic or extremely
salty water and sulfur hot springs.

a) Classification
In the past, bacteria were mainly classified according to their shapes:
- Sphere (cocci)
- Rod (bacilli)
- Spiral (spirilla)
- Comma (vibrios)

They usually band together in groups (colonies),

although they can be found in singles or forming pairs,
chains or clusters of varying number.

Today, it is more usual to classify them following other criteria such as their type of nutrition or
the structure of their cellular wall.

b) Vital functions:
Nutrition:
Bacteria can be:

- Autotrophs. They make organic matter from inorganic matter.

- Some bacteria do photosynthesis and use solar energy.
- Other ones do chemosynthesis and use energy from chemical reactions.

- Heterotrophs. They must consume elaborated organic matter. They can be:
- Parasites: They live in the body of other organisms, harming them. These bacteria
produce diseases.
- Symbiotic: They live in the body of other organisms too, but both provide mutual
benefit. Very often they cannot live separated.
- Saprophytes. They feed on the wastes of other organisms or the decaying matter.
- Decomposers. They transform the organic matter into inorganic matter that can
come back to the ground and can be used by autotrophic organisms.
UNIT 10: The simplest livings beings Biology and Geology (1 st ESO)

Interaction:
Bacteria have a simple interaction with their environment. They can feel changes of
temperature, salts concentration, light, etc. Their responses can be movement, secretion
of substances or reproduction.

Reproduction:
They reproduce asexually. Cell makes a copy of its DNA and then divides into two
separate cells. This type of cellular division is known as binary fission.

READING ACTIVITIES
After reading the text, copy and answer the following questions into your notebook:
Remember: you must make complete sentences.

3.1. Classify the following bacteria.

a. What criterion have you used to do it?

b. How is more common find them?
c. Can we classify them in another way? Indicate how we can do it.

3.2. Indicate the main difference between:

a. Symbiotic bacteria - Parasite bacteria
b. Decomposer bacteria - Saprophyte bacteria.
c. Photosynthetic bacteria - Chemosynthetic bacteria.

3.3. Why have bacteria had so much evolutionary success?

3.4. Listen to the description of the Monera Kingdom and indicate if the sentences are
true or false.
 UNIT 10: The simplest livings beings Biology and Geology (1 st ESO)

4. VIRUSES
Viruses are the smallest microorganisms.

To see them, an optic microscope is not enough.

We need a much more powerful electronic microscope.

They have a very simple structure:

- A capsid. It is a protein coat
that can have different shapes
(helical, icosahedral, etc.)
- A genome. It is a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA).
It’s the genetic material of the virus.

Some of them, have also an envelope. That is a cellular membrane that comes from the previous
infected cell.

They cannot be considered living beings, because they don’t perform all vital functions. Viruses
don’t feed, don’t move by themselves, and don’t interact with their environment. They only can
reproduce, but they must do it infecting a host cell like a parasite.

A virus attaches itself to a cell. It invades the cell and puts its genetic material into the cell. This
genetic material contains instructions, which the cell must follow. The instructions are very simple:
make more viruses just like the invader.

The infected cell begins to make viruses, and cannot stop. Sometimes the new viruses fill the cell
and make it explode. Other times the virus stays inside the cell for some time.

Virus life cycle

1º) Virus enters
into the cell 3º) New viruses exit
to infect other cells.
2º) Virus copies itself
using the cellular
machine.

HOST CELL

Viruses can infect every type of cells and all of them are pathogens that provoke diseases in
infected organism.

Some examples of human viral diseases are cold, influenza, SIDA, measles, mumps, poliomyelitis,
viral meningitis, etc.

READING ACTIVITIES
After reading the text, copy and answer the following questions into your notebook:
Remember: you must make complete sentences.

4.1. Answer the following questions about viruses:

a. Why viruses are not considered living beings?
b. Is there any beneficial virus? Why?
c. How many parts can we distinguish in a virus?
UNIT 10: The simplest livings beings Biology and Geology (1 st ESO)

4.2. Listen to the description of viruses and complete the text with the missing words.

Viruses

They are not made up of ……………………….., which is why they are not considered living
things and are therefore not classified in any ………………………. They infect a host cell in
order to ………………………. All viruses are ………………………………….. and are only visible through a
powerful electronic …………………………….

They have a simple structure that consists of:

- A polyhedral or helical ………………………. A viral envelope, similar to the cell
membrane, encloses the capsid in some viruses.
- ………………………….. material which information to reproduce.

Viruses can only replicate inside a ………………………… cell. When the virus has reproduced in
the host cell, the newly reproduced viruses leave the cell and …………………….. new host
cells. A virus outside a host cell is a ……………………………. particle.