What is the generic term for all bacteria?

• A. Monerans
• B. Protozoa
• C. Algae
• D. Fungi

Answer: (A)

Bacteria are prokaryotes, meaning they lack a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles and are usually unicellular. Because of this simple, single-celled organization, older classifications used the term Monera (monerans) as a generic label for all such bacteria. The other groups—protozoa are single-celled eukaryotes with nuclei; algae are photosynthetic eukaryotes; fungi are heterotrophic eukaryotes with chitin in their cell walls—so they don’t share the prokaryotic features that define Monera. While modern taxonomy often splits life into Bacteria and Archaea as separate domains, historically monerans was the broad term used for bacteria.