OBJECTIVE: Briefly describe the field of botany, and give short definitions of at least five subdisciplinesof plant biology

1. An Introduction to the
Science of Botany
Chapter 1

2. Why study botany?

3. • Botany permeates our everyday life.

4. Overgrazing in Africa

5. LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1
• Briefly describe the field of botany, and
give short definitions of at least five
subdisciplines of plant biology

6. KEY TERMS
• BOTANY The scientific study of plants;
also called plant biology

7. Subdisciplines 1
• Plant molecular biology
• Structures and functions of important
biological molecules (proteins, nucleic acids)
• Plant cell biology
• Structures, functions, and life processes of
plant cells

8. Subdisciplines 2
• Plant physiology
• How plants function (photosynthesis, mineral
nutrition)
• Plant genetics
• Plant heredity and variation

9. Subdisciplines 3
• Plant ecology
• Interrelationships among plants, and between
plants ands their environment

10. LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2
• Summarize and discuss the features of
plants and other organisms that
distinguish them from nonliving things

11. Levels of Biological Organization

12. Atoms Biosphere
Hydrogen Oxygen
Molecule
Water
Macromolecule
Chloroplast
Organelle
Epidermis
Tissue
Cell
Ecosystem
Community
Organ
Population
Organism
Fig. 1-3, p. 9

13. Characteristics of Living Things 1
• Organization
• Plants and other organisms are highly
organized with cells as their basic building
blocks
• Energy
• Plants and other organisms take in and use
energy

14. Plant Cells
-the basic functional
and structural
building block of
living things

15. • PHOTOSYNTHESIS
• Biological process that includes capture of
light energy and its transformation into
chemical energy of organic molecules that are
manufactured from carbon dioxide and water

16. CELLULAR RESPIRATION
• Cellular process in which energy of organic
molecules is released for biological work
• All living things get the energy they need to
live from a chemical reaction
called respiration. This process needs
glucose as a starting point.
• respiration and photosynthesis are opposites

17. Photosynthesis

18. • Importance of Photosynthesis
The process is as important for the humans and
animals as it is for plants. Other than glucose,
which is an important source of carbohydrates,
even proteins, fats, and water-soluble sugars
are the products of photosynthesis. We cannot
produce these nutrients on our own, and hence
have to depend directly on plants, or other
animals (which feed on these plants) to derive
them. Plants, being the only producers, have a
crucial role to play in any food chain.
• Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/photosynthesis-for-kids.html

19. Characteristics of Living Things 2
• Interaction with environment
• Plants respond to stimuli in their environment
• Plants undergo growth and development
• Reproduction
• Plants form new individuals by asexual or
sexual reproduction

20. Root Growth and Gravity

21. Response to Stimuli

22. Germination

23. Asexual Reproduction

24. Characteristics of Living Things 3
• Heredity
• DNA molecules transmit genetic information
from one generation to the next in plants and
other organisms
• Evolution
• Plants and other organisms evolve
• Populations change or adapt to survive in
changing environments

25. Adaptation

26. KEY TERMS
• DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID (DNA)
• A nucleic acid present in a cell’s
chromosomes that contains genetic
information

27. • EVOLUTION
• Cumulative genetic changes in a population of
organisms from generation to generation
• NATURAL SELECTION
• Mechanism of evolution (Charles Darwin)
• Tendency of organisms that have favorable
adaptations to their environment to survive
and become parents of next generation

28. LEARNING OBJECTIVE 3
• Distinguish among the six kingdoms and
three domains, and give representative
organisms for each

29. Euglena

30. Six-Kingdom Classification 1
1. Archaea
2. Bacteria
3. Protista
• protozoa, algae, water molds, slime molds

31. Six-Kingdom Classification 2
4. Fungi
• molds, yeasts
5. Animalia
6. Plantae

32. Three-Domain Classification
• Archaea
• Kingdom archaea
• Bacteria
• Kingdom bacteria
• Eukarya
• All other kingdoms

33. Kingdoms and Domains

34. Three Domains:
Bacteria Archaea Eukarya
Six Kingdoms:
Bacteria Archaea Protista Plantae Animalia Fungi
Prokaryotes (lack
membrane-bound
organelles);
unicellular;
most are
heterotrophic
(obtain food by
eating other
organisms),
but some are
photosynthetic or
chemosynthetic
Prokaryotes;
unicellular;
microscopic;
most live in
extreme
environments;
differ in
biochemistry
and in cell wall
structure
from bacteria
Eukaryotes;
mainly
unicellular or
simple
multicellular;
maybe
heterotrophic
or photosynthetic;
include protozoa,
algae, and slime
molds
Eukaryotes;
multicellular;
photosynthetic;
life cycle with
alternation of
generations;
cell walls of
cellulose
Eukaryotes;
multicellular;
heterotrophic;
most move
about by
muscular
contraction;
nervous system
coordinates
responses to
stimuli
Eukaryotes;
most
multicellular;
heterotrophic;
absorb
nutrients;
do not photo-synthesize;
cell walls of
chitin
Fig. 1-11, p. 14

35. KEY TERMS
• KINGDOM
• A broad taxonomic category made up of
related phyla; many biologists currently
recognize six kingdoms of living organisms
• DOMAIN
• A taxonomic category that includes one or
more kingdoms

36. Classification (Binomial System)

37. KEY TERMS
• SPECIES
• A group of organisms with similar structural
and functional characteristics
• In nature, they breed only with one another
and have a close common ancestry

38. LEARNING OBJECTIVE 4
• Summarize the main steps in the scientific
method, and explain how science differs
from many other human endeavors

39. The Scientific Method 1
1. Recognize a problem
• or an unanswered question
• Why plants shoots grow away from gravity
or toward sunlight, while roots grow into the
soil in the direction of gravity?
2. Develop a hypothesis
• to explain the problem
3. Design and perform an experiment
• to test the hypothesis

40. The Scientific Method 1
2. Develop a hypothesis
• to explain the problem
gravitropism
Amyloplasts
Statolith
3. Design and perform an experiment
• to test the hypothesis

41. The Scientific Method 2
4. Analyze and interpret the data
• to reach a conclusion
5. Share new knowledge
• with the scientific community

42. KEY TERMS
• HYPOTHESIS
• An educated guess (based on previous
observations) that may be true and is testable
by observation and experimentation
• THEORY
• A widely accepted explanation supported by a
large body of observations and experiments

43. Assignment
1. What is prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells?
2. Define the following: paleobotany, bryology,
agronomy, horticulture, forestry & economic
botany.
3. What is gravitropism?
4. What is Amyloplasts and what is its role?
5. What is the function of Indole acetic acid in
plant growth?
Deadline: next meeting
Use white intermediate paper.