Introduction to Botany
Botany - a branch of biology that studies
the science of plants. Also knows as
phytology, plant science, or plant biology.
• covers a very wide range of scientific
disciplines of plants
– Structure
– Growth and reproduction
– Metabolism
– Development
– Chemical properties
– Evolutionary relationships
between different groups
• can be studied through molecular,
genetic, and molecular level
Early to Modern Botanical Studies
 Theophrastus
- mere description and identification of
plants
- Father of Botany
 Pedanios Dioscorides
- worked on herbal plants and written De
Materia Medica which became the basis
of herbal and pharmaceutical writings
- Father of Medical Botany
 Johannes von Helmont
- measured uptake of water in trees
 Stephen Hales
- published his experiments dealing with
the nutrition and respiration of plants in
a work entitled Vegetable Staticks
 Joseph Priestley
- laid the foundation for the chemical
analysis of plant metabolism
 Carolus Linnaeus
- Father of Taxonomy
- devised system for naming, ranking,
and classifying organisms
Plants are essential to study because of
oxygen production, foods and beverages,
medicines, aesthetics and home gardening,
and changes of global atmosphere.
262, 000 species of plants
Either woody or herbaceous
Can be annuals, biennials, or
perennials
Subdivisions of Botany
 Anatomy and Morphology
- microscopic or macroscopic plant
structures
 Biochemistry
- chemical aspects of plant life
processes, includes Phytochemistry, the
chemical products of plants.
 Biophysics
- application of physics to plant life
processes
 Physiology
- functions and vital processes of plants
 Paleobotany
- biology and evolution of fossil plants
 Ecology
- relationships between plants and the
world in which they live, both
individually and in communities
 Molecular Biology
- structure and function of biological
macromolecules, including biochemical
and molecular aspects of genetics
 Systematics
- evolutionary history and relationships
among plants
 Horticulture
- the production of ornamental plants
and fruit and vegetable crops
 Ethnobotany
- plants and its relation to people
 Plant Pathology
- diseases of plants
 Biotechnology
- using biological organisms to produce
useful products
 Breeding
- development of better types of plants
A botanist is mainly concerned with
taxonomy, structure and morphology, and
physiology
Brief History of the Earth
- formed at 4.6 BYA and first life emerged
on 3.8 BYA
Macromolecules – produced through
polymerization
Protobionts / Proto-cells – formed through
macromolecules; began to use enzymes
(RNA) for replication, transcription, and
translation
Eukaryotes – organisms with cells
equipped with organelles and a membrane-
bound nucleus
Chemical Evolution Has 4 Stages
1. Abiotic Synthesis (Abiogenesis) &
Accumulation of Small Organic
Molecules or Monomers
1920 Al Oparin (Russian biochemist)
JBS Haldane ( English geneticist)
- postulated that conditions of primeval
earth (plus energy) favored chemical
reactions that synthesized compounds
from inorganic precursors present in
early atmosphere & seas
2. Polymerization of Monomers,
Proteins, & Nucleic Acids (Droplet
Stage)
Sidney Fox
- biochemist, University of Miami,
proposed the 1st proteins called
proteinoids formed from surfaces of
silicate clays
- many + and – charges on the surfaces
that facilitated processes of
polymerization
- iron & zinc served as metal catalysts
3. Aggregation of Abiotically Produced
Molecules into Droplets
(Protobionts/Coacervates)
Protenoids
- when mixed in cool water self
assemble into droplets (microspheres),
some aggregates formed 1st protocells
- early oceans contain billions of
molecules; some with amino acids that
catalyzed growth and promoting
reactions & droplets
Coacervates and its cell like properties
- microscopic spontaneously formed
spherical aggregates of lipid molecules that
are held together by electrostatic forces and
that may have been precursors of cells.
- formed outer boundary resembling
biological membrane
- grow by accumulating more lipids subunits
from surrounding medium
- form budlike projections & divide by
pinching in two (like fission in bacteria)
- contain amino acids & have several
chemical reactions found in living
organisms
4. Formation of 1st Genetic Material
1980 Thomas Cech & colleagues
- University of Colorado, discovered that
RNAs act like enzymes to assemble new
RNA molecules (ribozymes)
- might have constituted the primordial self
replicationg system, so first genes were
RNA
- polymerized abiotically & replicated
themselves autocatalytically
1991 Julius Rebek, Jr & co-workers
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
synthesized simple organic molecule that
acts as a template to produce copies of itself
- however nucleic acid genes were preceded
by simpler hereditary systems
Fundamental Properties of Life
- cellular organization, responsiveness,
growth, development, reproduction,
movement, metabolism, heredity, and
evolution
Origin of Plants
- Land plants arose from an ancestral green
alga and only once during evolution
- Green alga consists of 2 monophyletic
groups, Chlorophyta & Streptophyta (7
clades)
- Land plants and Charales are sister clades
Mitochondria and chloroplasts most likely
gained entry by endosymbiosis
Mitochondria were derived from purple
nonsulfur bacteria
Chloroplasts from cyanobacteria
Key Eukaryotic Characteristics
 Compartmentalization
- allows for increased subcellular
specialization
 Multicellularity
- allows for differentiation of cells into
tissues
 Sexual Reproduction
- allows for greater genetic diversity
Eukaryotic, Multicellular, Cellulosic
cell wall, Alternation of generations
(sporophyte, gametophyte), Two
modes of Reproduction (asexual,
sexual), Photosynthetic containing
chlorophyll
Land plants evolved from ocean-
dwelling, algae-like ancestors, and
plants have played a role in the
evolution of life, including the
addition of oxygen and ozone to the
atmosphere