Monera Kingdom

Some basic information on Monerans:

• Prokaryotes were the first organisms, and persist today as the most numerous and pervasive of all living things.
  
• Live in close associations among themselves and with eukaryotes in symbiotic relationship
  
• Nearly all prokaryotes have external cell walls, which protect and shape the cell and prevent osmotic bursting. Cell walls of eubacteria typically contain the polymer peptidoglycan. Gram positive and gram negative bacteria differ in the structure of their walls and other surface layers.
  
• Many species secrete sticky substances that form capsules. Some have surface appendages called pili are specialized for conjugation.
  
• Bacteria reproduce asexually by binary fission.
  
• Motile bacteria propel themselves by flagella, use flagella like filaments positioned inside the cell wall or glide on slime secretions. About half of all prokaryotes species are capable of directing movement.
  
• Bacterial growth is effectively geometric 1-2-4-8-16........
  
• Photoautotrophs use light energy and chemoautotrophs use inorganic substances to synthesize their organic compounds from carbon dioxide. Photoheterotrophs require organic molecules for metabolic processes and synthesize ATP using light energy. Most bacteria are chemoheterotrophs, which require organic molecules as a source of both energy and organic carbon.
  
• Several groups of bacteria metabolize nitrogen compounds unavailable to other organisms. By doing so, these prokaryotes play critical roles in the cycling of nitrogen in the environment.
  
• The ability or inability to survive in the presence of oxygen also reflects variation in metabolism. Obligate aerobes require oxygen, obligate anaerobes are poisoned by it, and facultative anaerobes can survive with or without oxygen.
  
• Prokaryotes, along with fungi, are decomposers that recycle chemical elements in ecosystems.
  
• Some prokaryotes live with the species in symbiotic relationship of mutualism, commensalism, or parasitism.
  
• Bacteria have been put to work in laboratories, sewage treatment plants, and the food and drug industry. One especially exciting development has been the use of prokaryotes in recombinant DNA technology.
  
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