Lectures 16-24 Flashcards
What are the chlorophyta?
the green algae
- start of terrestrial green line
Why do we know land plants are monophyletic?
genetic sequencing
- evolved from within a particular group of freshwater green algae = CHAROPHYTA
What charophyta is thought to be the most closely related to land plants?
Zygnema
What is gametic meiosis?
gametes produced directly by meiosis and fuse immediately without mitosis
- most lifecycle = diploid (animals)
What is zygotic meiosis?
when meiosis occure immediately after diploid zygote formation
- lifecycle mainly in haploid form
- fungi
What is sporic meiosis?
mitosis occurs in both haploid and diploid phase and so 2 multicellular phases - all land plants
= alternation of generations
What is the haploid multicellular phase of plants life cycle called?
gametophyte
What is the diploid multicellular phase of plant lifecycle called?
sporophyte
Stages of plant life cycle?
x 6
1) Diploid multicellular stage
2) Meiosis to produce haploid spores
3) Mitosis of spores to haploid multicellular
4) Produce gametes by mitosis
5) Fertilisation of gametes = diploid
6) Mitosis to produce multicellular
What is a clade?
Monophyletic group
- group of organisms containing all decendants of an ancestor
What is a grade?
a group of organisms that share similarities but are not monophyletic
What are the bryophytes?
Liverworts, hornworts and mosses - GRADE
- 470 millions years ago to present
- most closely related to charophyte algae
- haploid dominant
- small diploid sporophyte is parasitic to haploid
What are the liverworts?
bryophytes which are most likely the earliest evolving land plant group
- more or less amphibious thin plants
- patches of cuticle and air pores
- film of water over surface for reproduction as sperm need to swim
What are hornworts?
bryophytes
- resemble liverworts but have a full water-repellent surface cuticle
- has 2 celled stomata in diploid
- very few species
What are mosses?
Bryophytes
- fundamental to worlds carbon balance
- have rudimentary cellular water transport systems —> not xylem
- ~9,000 species
- green spongy = haploid
- extensions are diploid
- need water on surface to reproduce as sperm swim
What are the vascular plants?
clade
- 420 million years ago to present
- all but bryophytes
- vertical water transport by xylem and also tough, rigid body
- diploid sporophytes mainly
- spore-producing bodies held high for long spore distribution
split
1) Non-seed producers = spore producers
2) seed plants
What are the two main groups of living spore-producers?
1) lycophytes
2) ferns and horsetails
- both still rely on water for reproduction
What are lycophytes?
spore producers
- called clubmosses but not mosses
- few species remain
- first plants to have leaves with vascular supply
- thickened stems which gave first trees (though not small)
- phloem
What are horsetails?
- ring of vascular tissue around hollow stem
- strength
- small
What are ferns?
spore producers
- large megaphylls (leaves) which produce spores
- still water-dependent
What are the seed plants?
1) gymnosperms
2) flowering plants = angiosperms
- when gametophyte generation, egg and then next sporophyte generation within sporophyte tissue
- when world dried out = dominant
What are the three types of gymnosperms?
1) Cycads
2) Ginkgo
3) Conifers
What are cycads?
Gymnosperms
- abundant 260-180 mya
- single unbranched stems with mass of tough, highly divided leaves
What is the maidenhair tree? Ginkgo?
only remaining ginkgo species left
- gymnosperm
- changed very little in past 150 mya
What are conifers?
- gymnosperms
- developed novel method of tree growth = expanding ring of mitotically active tissue around tree = grow out as well as up to support
- oldest and largest organisms
- mainly needle-bearers
- 700 species
What are angiosperms?
flowering plants
- only 130 mya
- 250,000-400,000 species
unique
1) showy/often coloured flowers
2) ovule completely enclosed
3) have double fertilisation
What do plants have to cope with on land?
x 6
- Desiccating environments
- Gas exchange requirement changes (aerial environment and due to waterproofing)
- Mechanical support - not water buoyancy
- Transport water, nutrients and photosynthetic products around plant
- Changed nutrient uptake requirements
- Different reproduction conditions
2 benefits of transition to land
- light availability
2. Increased CO2 availability
How do liverworts deal with desiccation and gas exchange?
hug moist ground
- partial cuticle
- suspend metabolism, growth and reproduction when dry out
- rapid recovery when water available
- open air pores for gas exchnage
How do mosses cope with gas exchange and lack of water?
- suspend metabolism if dry out
- cuticle
- doughnut-shaped guard cells
How do most plants deal with desiccation and gas exchange?
- waterproof membrane or cuticle
- cuticle of cutin = hydrophobic polymer
- often uses waxes as well
- barrier to fungal invasion
- in vascular plants stomata have pair of guard cells - all stomata evolved from one (evolved once)
- inside plants open pathways for large surface area for gas exchange
Why do land plants need transport systems?
- water = roots to leaves
2. photosynthetic nutrients = to roots
What carries water in plants and how are they formed?
Xylem
- rings of lignin for support = pre-adaptation as in algae
- cellulose strengthened
- lignin water-resistant and antibiotic
- cells cannot survive being wrapped in lignin - so apoptosis - leaves hollow tubes
- water movement driven by water evaporation from stomata
- lignin provides compression resistance but also lateral flexibility
Transport mechanism for photosynthates?
Phloem
- sucrose
- must be alive so no lignin
What did the first land plants have instead of roots?
Rhizoids
- hair like projections, helped anchor to ground
Why did roots evolve?
- stabilisation
2. Mineral and water uptake
What are mycorrhiza?
- symbiosis between fungi and plants
- in 85% of flowering plants
- 100% gymnosperms
- in fossils from Devonian
What is the structure of VAM - mycorrhiza?
VAM = Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza
- fungal spores attracted to roots by chemical signals
- hyphae form appressorium on root surface
- force between epidermal cells and break into outer, cortical cells through cellulose
- inside space between membrane and wall = arbuscule - little tree
- big contact zone
What do plants gain from mycorrhiza?
- mobilisation of phosphate
- Plant growth hormones made in fungi
- protection from pathogens
- Maintenance for acid/base balance
What do fungi gain in VAM?
Sugars from plant
What are embryophytes?
All living plants
Where are the eggs and embryos attached to the gametophyte?
Ina archegonium
Examples of physical plant defences?
x 4
- Hairs
- Spines
- Glandular trichomes
- Stinging hairs
How do hairs defend plants?
Hairs = TRICHOMES = unicellular or multicellular outgrowths of the epidermis
- still air over surfaces cutting water loss
- dense hairs are distasteful to mammalian grazers (sharp fragments can penetrate soft palate = irritation or infection)
- Insects cant get to flesh
- Or hooks to catch and trap so cant move and then starve
How can spines protect plants?
- effective against large grazers and browsers
- develop by modification of a lot of different organs
What are glandular trichomes?
Secrete sticky substances to impede animal movement
- some carnivorous genera secrete proteases to digest the trapped insects
How can stinging hair protect plants?
- nettles
- fragile trichomes that break when touched
- embed into skin
- histamine injected cause immediate itching
- many other chemicals give long-lasting burn
How can insects remove trichomes?
bite them off
- some pin them back