DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

(MICROBIOLOGY UNIT)
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF DELTA, AGBOR

COURSE CODE : MCB 211

COURSE TITLE: General Microbiology I

TOPIC: Classification of Organisms into Prokaryotes

and Eukaryotes & Prokaryotes into
Archaea and Eubacteria

COURSE LECTURER: DR. (MRS) I. M. OYEM

CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANISMS INTO PROKARYOTES AND EUKARYOTES
Introduction
In the 18th century Carolus Linnaeus made an attempt to classify living things. In
doing this, there was a problem because many organisms could not be grouped into
either plant or animals. He therefore decided to group them as “chaos” while
grouping all other living things into two-kingdom Plantae and Animalia, basing his
ideas on the method the two groups secure nutrients; the plants having
photosynthetic organs while the animals ingestive organs. The error in Linnaeus’
classification becomes obvious in groups like fungi which for long though described
as plant, could neither photosynthesize nor ingest, rather is absorptive in its mode
of nutrition. Certain other organisms like Euglena though having every
characteristics of an animal is capable of carrying out photosynthesis. This confusion
led German Zoologist, Haeckel in 1866 to suggest a three-kingdom to include those
organisms which are neither plants nor animals. He called the kingdom Protista, to
include only unicellular organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi and protozoa, but
excluding viruses because they are not cellular organisms. In 1957 Stainer and co-
workers distinguished two subgroups among the protista; the lower protista made
up of less developed prokaryotic type bacteria and blue green algae and the higher
protista which are more highly evolved prokaryotes such as protozoa, fungi and
most algae. With this Stainer proposed a four-kingdom system of classification
which includes plant, animal, lower protist and higher protists
The diversity of microorganisms has always presented a challenge to
microbial taxonomists. The early description of cellular microbes as either
plants or animals were too simple. For instance, some microbes are motile
like animals but also have cell walls and are photosynthetic like plants. An
important breakthrough came from studies of their cellular architecture,
when it was discovered that cells exhibited one of two possible “floor
plans”. Cells with an open floor plan now known as prokaryotic cells, having
their content not divided into compartments (“rooms”) by membranes,
their most obvious characteristics being that they lack membrane bound
nucleus and eukaryotic cells, which have a nucleus and also many
membrane-bound organelles that separates some cellular materials and
processes from others.
These observations and some others, eventually led to the development of
a classification scheme by Robert Whitakker that divided organisms into
five-kingdoms: Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia.
Microorganisms (except for viruses and other acellular infectious agents,
which have their own classification system) were placed in the first three
kingdoms. In this scheme, all organisms with prokaryotic structure where
placed in the kingdom Monera.
CLASSIFICATION OF PROKARYOTES INTO ARCHAE AND EUBACTERIA
The five-kingdom system was an important development in microbial
taxonomy. However, it is no longer accepted by Microbiologists. This is
because not all prokaryotes are the same and therefore should not be
grouped together in a single kingdom. Furthermore, it is currently
argued that the term prokaryotes is not meaningful and should be
abandoned. Great progress has been made in the area of microbial
classification due to:
1. knowledge about the detailed structure of microbial cells, from the
use electron microscopy
2. determination of the biochemical and physiological characteristics of
many different microorganisms and
3. comparisons of the sequence of nucleic acids and proteins from a
wide variety of organisms
Carl Woese (1928-2012) in the 1970s based on comparisons of 16S rRNA
sequence, cell membrane lipostructure and sensitivity to antibiotics,
demonstrated that there are two very different groups of organisms with
prokaryotic cell architecture: Bacteria and Archaea.
Later studies based on rRNA comparisons showed that
Protista is not a cohesive taxonomic unit and that it should
be divided into three or more kingdoms. These studies and
others have led many taxonomists to reject the five-kingdom
system in favour of one that divides cellular organisms into
three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya (all
eukaryotic organisms) (Figure 1). Members of the domain
Bacteria (eubacteria; meaning true bacteria) are usually
single-celled organisms. Most have cell wall that contain the
structural molecule peptidoglycan. Members of the domain
Archaea are distinguished from bacteria by many features,
most notably their distinctive rRNA sequences, lack of
peptidoglycan in their cell walls, and unique membrane
lipids. The domain Eukarya includes microorganisms
classified as protists or fungi. Animal and plants are also
PROKARYOTES EUKARYOTES

Eubacteria1(6 KINGDOMS) Protist3 Fungi4 Plantae5 Animalia6

Archaebacteria2

BACTERIA1 ARCHAEA 2 EUKARYA3

(3 DOMAINS)
Protists are generally unicellular but larger than most bacteria and
archaea. They have traditionally been divided into protozoa and
algae. The major types of protists are algae, protozoa, slime mold
and water molds. Fungi are a diverse group of microorganisms
that range from unicellular forms (yeasts) to multicellular forms
such as molds and mushrooms.
The microbial world also includes acellular infectious agents
namely viruses, viroids, satellites and prions. Viruses are acellular
entities that invade a host cell to multiply. The simplest virus
particle (also called virions) are composed only of proteins and a
nucleic acid, and can be extremely small (the smallest is 10,000
times smaller than a typical bacterium). However, their small size
belies their power as they have caused many animal and plant
diseases that has resulted in epidemics which has shaped human
history.
Below is a table comparing bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic cells
(Table 2).
Table 2: Comparisons between Bacterial, Archaeal, and Eukaryotic cells
Property Bacteria Archaea Eukarya
Organization of Genetic Prokaryotic
a Prokaryotic Eukaryotic
Material
 True membrane -bound  No No Yes
nucleus
 DNA complexed with
histones and introns  No Some Yes

Plasmids Very common Very common Rare

Plasma Membrane Lipids Ester-linked Glycerol diethers Ester-linked
phospholipids and and diglycerol phospholipids
hopanoids, some tetraethers and sterols
have sterols

Peptidoglycan in cell wall Yes No No

Ribosome Size and 70S; 3 rRNAs; ̴ 55 70S; most have 80S: 4 rRNAs;
Structure ribosomal proteins 3 rRNAs; ̴ 68 ̴ 80 ribosomal
ribosomal proteins proteins
Gas Vesicles Yes Yes No
Sensitivity to antibiotics Yes No No