Classification Flashcards
What is biodiversity?
A measure of the variety of living organisms and their genetic differences
What are the 8 levels of classification?
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
Why do we classify?
To have an internationally recognised way to refer to any particular living organism and understand how different types of living organisms are related to each other
What is taxonomy?
The science of describing, classifying and naming organisms
What are the 3 domains?
Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota
What are the 5 kingdoms and what does kingdom mean?
Animal, Plant, Fungi, Protist, Prokaryote
-a large group of organisms with few characteristics in common
What is a species?
A group of organisms that freely interbreed to produce fertile offspring and where genes can flow between the organisms
-a small group of organisms with lots of characteristics in common
What is a breed?
A group of animals of the same species that have different characteristics that make them different to other members of that species
What is a variety?
A group of plants of the same species that have different characteristics that make them different to other members of that species
How do you use the binomial system?
-The first name is the genus (uppercase letter)
-The second name is the species (lowercase letter)
-Must be written in italics
What are the limitations of species models?
-Finding the evidence is time consuming and expensive to set up a breeding programme
-Many organisms do not reproduce sexually
-Fossil organisms cannot reproduce and
often do not have accessible DNA but they still need to be classified
Why do we need to identify individual species?
-Understand the biodiversity of an ecosystem and try to protect it
-Understand evolutionary history
-Work out if a species is pathogenic and may lead to a pandemic
-Test for food contamination
What is the hierarchy of taxonomy?
-Consists of a series of groups within groups
-No overlap between groups
-The groups are based on shared features
What do scientists use to classify?
-Anatomical/physical features
-Fossil evidence
-Biochemical analysis of proteins
-Biochemical analysis of DNA
How is new evidence for evolution validated?
By the scientific community when it is submitted to a scientific journal to be peer reviewed by experts in the field
What are the characteristics of the bacteria domain?
-Peptidoglycan in the cell wall
-Membrane lipids
-Ribosomes
-Plasmids
-RNA polymerase
-Some are methogens (produce methane)
-Some conduct chlorophyll based photosynethsis
-No nucleus and no unused sections in genes
What are the characteristics of the archaea domain?
-Ribosomes
-RNA polymerase
-Ribosomes sensitive to the diptheria toxin
-Some are methogens
-No nucleus and genes contain unused sections in DNA
What are the characteristics of the eukaryote domain?
-Has a nucleus with unused sections in genes
-Membrane organelles
-Membrane lipids
-Ribosomes
-RNA polymerase
-Ribosomes sensitive to the diptheria toxin
-Some conduct chlorophyll based photosynethesis
What is evolution?
The process by which different kinds of living organisms are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth
What is bioinformatics?
The development of software and computing tools needed to organise and analyse raw biological data
What are DNA bar codes?
Looking at short genetic sequences from a part of the genome common to particular groups of organisms
What is DNA sequencing?
The process by which the base sequence of all or part of the genome of an organism is worked out
What is DNA profiling?
The process by which the non-coding areas of DNA are analysed to identify patterns
Which models are used to classify species?
-Ecological species model
-Mate recognition species model
-Genetic species model
-Evolutionary species model
What is the morphological species concept?
Looking at the appearance of the organisms and how similar their appearances are
