KINGDOM-MONERA
The kingdom—Monera includes all prokaryotes such as
bacteria, mycoplasma, Actinomycetes and cyanobacteria
(blue-green algae).
The characteristic features of kingdom—Monera are given
below
(i) They are simplest and most primitive, unicellular
prokaryotes.
(ii) The cell wall contains peptidoglycan or murein
(no cellulose), but the membrane bound cell
organelles are not present.
(iii) They have various types of modes of nutrition like
saprophytic, parasitic, chemoautotrophic,
photoautotrophic and symbiotic.
(iv) DNA is naked. It lies inside the cytoplasm in coiled
form. This is called nucleoid or false nucleus.
(v) The flagella, if present, are single-stranded instead of
being several stranded as in eukaryotes. These
contain a protein called flagellin.
(vi) Reproduction is by asexual methods. Gametes are
not present.
(vii) Mitotic spindle is absent.
(viii) Some of the monerans have the ability to fix nitrogen
into useful nitrates.