Importance of Thermoacidophiles
-The importance and impact that microbial activity has on the geology, geochemistry and ecology of hydrothermal vent ecosystems is now well-recognized. Given the recent discovery that the first cultured member of the deep-sea endemic archeael lineage, DHVE2, is a thermoacidophile, growing best at pH 4.5 and unable to grow above pH 6, the investigators in this project are poised to use this organism as a model organism to explore the ecology of thermoacidophiles at deep-sea vents.

Importance of Methanogenium thermophilum
-In four species of methanogens able to grow with secondary alcohols as hydrogen donors the expression and properties of secondary alcohol dehydrogenase (sec-ADH) were investigated. Cells grown with 2-propanol and CO2 immediately started to oxidize secondary alcohols to ketones if transferred to new media.

Importance of Methanobacterium Thermoautotrophicum
-The complete 1,751,377-bp sequence of the genome of the thermophilic archaeon Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum deltaH has been determined by a whole-genome shotgun sequencing approach. A total of 1,855 open reading frames (ORFs) have been identified that appear to encode polypeptides, 844 (46%) of which have been assigned putative functions based on their similarities to database sequences with assigned functions.

Importance of Gram-positive
- Gram-positive bacteria are so called because they take up the violet stain used in the Gram staining method. Gram-positive bacteria are able to retain the crystal violet stain due to their thick peptidoglycan layer in their cell wall. This layer is superficial to the cell membrane. Cell walls provide structural support, protection and rigidity to the cell.

Importance of Gram-Negative
- Gram-negative bacteria are at the root of about 30% of the hospital-acquired infections in the U.S., researchers said. Although they don't account for the majority of these types of infections, they have "features that are of particular concern," including highly efficient ways of gearing up for drug resistance and a host of resistance mechanisms.

Importance of Gliding
-Gliding motility is observed in a large variety of phylogenetically unrelated bacteria. Gliding provides a means for microbes to travel in environments with a low water content, such as might be found in biofilms, microbial mats, and soil. Gliding is defined as the movement of a cell on a surface in the direction of the long axis of the cell. Because this definition is operational and not mechanistic, the underlying molecular motor(s) may be quite different in diverse microbes.

fungi

Importance of Chytridiomycota(Allomyces,water molds)
- Chytridomycota usually inhabit freshwater ecosystems. In fact, they are dependent on the presence of water to survive. However, Chytridiomycota often dwell within host organisms, which can be plants or animals. They live saprophytically and parasitically. Because Chytridiomycota often feed on decaying organisms, they are important decomposers.

Importance of Zygomycota(Rhizopus, bread molds, mocur)
- or zygote fungi, is a phylum of fungi. The name comes from zygosporangia, where resistant spherical spores are formed during sexual reproduction. Approximately 1060 species are known. They are mostly terrestrial in habitat, living in soil or on decaying plant or animal material.
Importance of Basidiomycota
- They are important decomposers not only do they break down dead and dying organisms, but they also return nutrients to the soil. These nutrients not only replenish soils in the wilderness, but also in croplands as well, making them more economically valuable.

Protista
Importance of Apicomplexa
- The Apicomplexa — also called Apicomplexia — are a large group of parasitic protists, most of which possess a unique organelle, a type of plastidcalled an apicoplast, and an apical complex structure involved in penetrating a host's cell. They are unicellular, spore-forming, and exclusively[3]parasites of animals. Motile structures such as flagella or pseudopods are present only in certain gamete stages.

Importance of Sarcomastigophora
- It is polyphyletic, and it is not a universally recognized classification. It places great significance upon method of locomotion in generating the taxonomy. It can be described either as: kingdom Protista → phylum Sarcomastigophora or in older classifications as phylum Protozoa → subphylum Sarcomastigophora.

Importance of Rhizopoda
- Rhizopoda are a broad group of protozoan amoeboid organisms placed in the kingdom Protista. They include the naked and testate amoebae, some members of the slime moulds and foraminifera. The latter are almost exclusively marine organisms, either benthic or planktonic. Locomotion is by extension of pseudopodia of varied morphology that are specific to the taxonomic group. Pseudopodial morphology includes broad and fan‐shaped anterior extensions, finger‐like tubular extensions, or a web‐like network, the latter are called rhizopods.
CHARACTERISTICS OF KINGDOM ANIMALIA * All animals are multicellular, eukaryotic heterotrophs —they have multiple cells with mitochondria and they rely on other organisms for their nourishment. * Adult animals develop from embryos: small masses of unspecialized cells * Simple animals can regenerate or grow back missing parts * Most animals ingest their food and then digest it in some kind of internal cavity. * Somewhere around 9 or 10 million species of animals inhabit the earth. * About 800,000 species have been identified. * Animal Phyla- Biologists recognize about 36 separate phyla within the Kingdom Animalia.
(We’ll study the 10 major ones!)

PLANTAE

Importance of Flowering Plants(Angiosperm)
- also known as Angiospermae Lindl.[2][3] or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies(derived characteristics). These characteristics include flowers, endosperm within the seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds. Etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure.

Importance of Non-Flowering Plants
- Most mosses grow in short clumps, or cushions. They do not have true roots, but short, slender growths, called rhizoids. Rootlike rhizoids anchor moss to soil, rock, or bark, but do not draw up water. Instead, leaves absorb moisture in the air.

Importance of Fern
- The stem, or rhizome, of a fern grows horizontally through the soil. Tiny curled-up fronds (leaves) grow from small buds on the rhizome. The buds unroll and the frond expands. The fronds of some ferns grow 20 ft (6 m) long, but others reach only 1/2 in (13 mm).

Phylum Nematode/Nematod
- The nematodes /ˈnɛmətoʊdz/ or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. They are a diverse animal phylum inhabiting a very broad range of environments. Nematode species can be difficult to distinguish, and although over 25,000 have been described, of which more than half areparasitic, the total number of nematode species has been estimated to be about 1 million.

Platyhelminthes

Phylum Annelida
- The phylum Annelida is made up of segmented worms, numbering about 15,000 species. Body segmentation, a hallmark of annelids, was a major step in the evolution of animals. Annelids are protosomes, meaning they have a coelom made from cell masses. This coelom is divided into a series of repeated parts. This repetition is called metamerism, and each segment is called a metamere.

Phylum Mollusca
- Evolutionarily, the molluscs apparently derive from the platyhelminthes. They are classified as triploblastic eucoelomate animals, as are all phyla remaining to be examined. Most molluscs are bilaterally symmetrical and have well-defined circulatory, respiratory, excretory, and digestive systems.

Phylum Arthropoda
- Phylum Arthropoda (arthro = joint; poda = foot) is the most numerous phylum of all living organisms, both in number of species and in number of individuals. One, very conservative, estimate is that there are well over one million species of insects alone. In terms of number of individuals, there are more ants than anything else, and in terms of numbers of species, there are more kinds of beetles than anything else: 40 to 50% of all insect species are beetles. There are more species of insects than all other plants and animals together.

Phylum Echinodermata
- Echinoderms (Phylum Echinodermata from Greek, ἐχῖνος, echinos – "hedgehog" und δέρμα, derma – "skin") are a phylum of marine animals. The adults are recognizable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include such well-known animals as starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars, andsea cucumbers. Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone. The phylum contains about 7000 livingspecies.

Phylum Chordata
- All chordates have a number of structures in common: A notochord (noto = the back; chord = string) is present in all embryos, and may be present or absent/reduced in adults. This is the structure for which the phylum was named. A dorsal, hollow, ectodermal nerve cord (compare with Annelida and Arthropoda which have ventral, solid, mesodermal nerve cords) typically forms by an infolding of the ectoderm tissue, which then “pinches off” and becomes surrounded by mesoderm.