Characteristics and Classification of Living Organisms

• Cell walls are found only in plants, algae, fungi, and some bacteria.
• Plant cells have a rigid cell wall that provides support to the plant body.
• The nucleus is an organelle within eukaryotic cells responsible for controlling genetic information.
• Plant cells have large vacuoles that store water, nutrients, pigments, and waste products.
• Animals are multicellular and heterotrophs
• Animal cells lack cell walls
• The function of mitochondria is aerobic respiration and to release energy
• Chloroplasts contain chlorophyll which absorbs light energy from sunlight
• Prokaryotes include bacteria and archaea
• Two characteristics of fungi that distinguish from plants are that they have no chloroplasts, no central vacuole and are heterotrophs
• Fungi can be unicellular or multicellular
• Plants are autotrophs because they make their own food using photosynthesis
• Animals are heterotrophs as they cannot produce their own food so must eat other organisms
• Bacteria are prokaryotic single-celled microorganisms with no nucleus