Kingdom Monera

Understand the idea

This course uses five kingdoms: Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. Kingdoms are sorted by how they get food, what their cells are like, and whether they are one cell or many.

Monera are prokaryotes. They have no nuclear membrane. The cell wall is present and is not cellulose. They are unicellular and may be autotrophic or heterotrophic. Bacteria and blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) such as Nostoc and Spirulina belong here.

A typical bacterium has a capsule, cell wall, plasma membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes, and a nucleoid of DNA. Pili are short surface strands; flagella are long and used for movement. Mycoplasma lacks a cell wall. Cyanobacteria photosynthesise but still have no mitochondria, Golgi, chloroplasts, or ER.

What to remember

• Monera = prokaryotic, unicellular, no nuclear membrane.
• Nutrition may be autotrophic or heterotrophic.
• Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic prokaryotes.

Recap

Monera are the prokaryote kingdom. Remember the bacterial parts, the missing nucleus, and why blue-green algae were moved here.