Monera, Protista and Fungi

Monera are single cells with no true nucleus (prokaryotes): bacteria and cyanobacteria. Their genetic material lies loose in the cell.

Bacteria are everywhere: in hot springs, in the soil, on your hands, on the phone you are holding, and inside your body. Some cause disease, but many are useful:

• *Lactobacillus* turns milk into curd;
• *Rhizobium* gives plants the nitrogen they need;
• bacteria in the stomachs of cows and buffaloes help make biogas from their dung;
• some break down oil, pesticides and sewage.

Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) make their own food. They were among the first living things to give out oxygen by photosynthesis; oxygen built up in the air about 2.5 billion years ago. Their fossils, in rocks called stromatolites, are found in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Ram Bux Singh, the "Father of Modern Biogas", set up India's first scientifically designed biogas plant at Ramnagar, Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh) in 1957, and later worked on cheap biogas plants for villages.

Protista are single cells with a true nucleus (eukaryotes). They have no cell wall, or one made of cellulose, and live in water or damp places: *Amoeba (a shapeless blob), Paramecium (shaped like a slipper), Euglena*. You can see them by making a hay infusion: soak dry grass in water for a few days and look at a drop under a microscope. Some make their own food, some eat others; they are an important link in water food chains.

Fungi are mostly many-celled, with cell walls of chitin. They don't make food; they absorb it through fine threads that form a network called a mycelium. Most are saprophytes: they feed on dead leaves, twigs and animals, breaking them down. Yeast is a single cell, but its chitin wall makes it a fungus.

Useful fungi:

• yeast makes bread, bhature, idli and dosa batter rise;
• *Aspergillus and Penicillium* give us enzymes and antibiotics;
• mushrooms (which spread by spores) are food. Mushroom farming needs little space and money, and a crop is ready in 30 to 45 days.