Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 6/27/2007

Question
what's the differences of the monera kingdom to the other kingdoms

Answer
Dear Daniel,

I just now found your question in the Biology question pool, and though it's been a few days, I hope my answer will still help.

Kingdom Monera no longer exists: it has been divided into different taxa (Domains Bacteria and Archaea) to more accurately reflect true evolutionary relationships.  But when it *did* exist, it consisted only of unicellular (or colonial) organisms consisting of *prokaryotic* cells.  This type of cell is different from the cells of the other kingdoms (Animalia, Fungi, Plantae and former kingdom "Protista," which is also now broken up into about eight separate kingdoms), which are eukaryotic.

Prokaryotic cells lack a membrane-bounded nucleus or any membrane-bounded organelles.  Eukaryotic cells have a membrane-bounded nucleus and many organelles.  You can see a comparison of these two cell types here:

http://www.life.umd.edu/classroom/bsci424/BSCI223WebSiteFiles/ProkaryoticvsEukar...

Hope that helps.

Dana