Plants Flashcards
Lectures 5-8
Create a timeline of when certain plant types evolved.
- First land plants 500 mya
- First vascular plants 420 mya
- First seed plants 360 mya
- Gymnosperms 245 mya
- Angiosperms 50 mya
How did colonisation of land plants allow for animal life?
They reduced the hostility of the land by:
- Increasing oxygen content
- Lowering temperatures
- Habitat provision both physically and via organic matter
- Food source provision
Describe the ancestral relationship of algae.
- Closest related are the Charophytes and Embrophytes (land plants)
- Then chlorophytes
- Then red algae
What are the 9 traits charophytes and land plants share?
- Both multicellular and eukaryotic
- Chloroplasts with chlorophyll a & b shared in plants, green algae
- Cell walls all contain cellulose with rosette complexes of 6 glucose molecules. Non charophyte algae have linear complexes.
- Share enzymes that minimise loss of organic compounds using photorespiration. Other algae lack them.
-Share the structure of flagellated sperm - Share the process of phragmoplast formation
- Similar gene sequences
- Presence of sporopollenin, a tough polymer protecting exposed zygotes
What are the 4 problems faced by plants colonising land?
- Dessication
- Lack of structural support
- Lack of nutrients
- Access and transport of water
How have land plants overcome these 4 problems?
Dessication: Cuticle layer over stomata that opens and closes based on hormones, allowing for gas exchange with minimal water loss
Lack of structural support: Thick cell wall with cellulose and lignin
Lack of nutrients: Root systems, symbiotic association with mycorrhizal fungi
Access and transport of water: Xylem and phloem
What are the 4 main traits land plants posses but charophytes do not?
- Root Apical Meristem and Shoot Apical Meristem
- Multicellular gametangia (organ/cell in which gametes are formed)
- Alternation between haploid/diploid in life
- Walled spores produced in sporangia which is only released in correct conditions.
What are cryptograms?
- Lower plants
- Seedless plants
- Spore bearing plants
- Non flowering plants
Two types: Vascular (ferns etc) and non vascular (mosses etc)
What are bryophytes?
Small plants without vascular systems. They must be kept in moist environments due to the fact they rely on capillary movement of water.
Do bryophytes have leaves or roots?
They have neither. They are anchored by rhizoids and have microphylls instead of leaves.
How have some bryophytes evolved to grow up to 2m?
Mosses such as polytrichum has conducting tissues in the middle of their stems.
In moss, what produces sperm cells? What does it require?
The antheridia releases sperm cells and requires water to release them, such as raindrops.
What produces the egg cell in moss?
The egg cell is in the archegonium.
When does the life cycle become diploid?
moss
When the sperm and egg cell fuse within the archegonium, creating a diploid zygote.
Describe the process from the zygote to the release of haploid spores.
moss
Zygote undergoes mitosis, eventually growing into an embryo. It then forms capsules (sporangium) which undergo meiosis and release haploid spores.
How does the plant grow from these spores?
moss
They are blown in the wind away from the parent plant and grow into new male/female gametophytes.
Give a summary of liverworts.
- Hepatophyta
- Some have simple thallus
- Similar lifecycle to moss with dominant gametophyte
- Some have complex gamete bearing structures
- Some reproduce asexually via budding
Give a summary of hornworts.
- Antherocerophyta
- Have simple gametophyte thallus
- Each cell has single large chloroplast
- Symbiotic with N2 fixing blue-green algae
- Sporophyte has 2 horns, grows from base
What are vascular cryptograms and their characteristics?
- Ferns, horsetails, club mosses
- Have vascular tissue
- Have dominant sporophyte
- Reduced gametophyte known as a prothallus.
What is the first known vascular land plant?
Cooksonia, extinct since the Devonian 380 Mya.
- First plant to show apical dichotomous branching, maximising offspring from one fertilisation.
What is the dominant phase of a fern life cycle?
Sporophytic diploid.
What does the prothallus contain?
- Archegonium (egg)
- Anteridium (sperm)
What is dishiscence?
The process in which spores are ejected from sporangium. Dead water filled cells known as annulus loses water via evaporation, is distorted. Annulus peels back, air forms a bubble as water is lost and eventually snaps back and dislodges spores.
Describe the stages of a fern life cycle from a spore to an adult.
- Spores are released from sporangium.
- Germinate and grow into a prothallus, which houses both the archegonium (egg) and anteridium (sperm)
- Sperm needs water to travel to egg, they fuse to become a diploid embryo.
- Grow into adult sporophyte and release new spores after meiosis via dishiscence.