Biology - Cell (Plant Cell and Animal Cell)

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What Cell

A cell is a basic unit of life, which is capable of independent reproduction. A cell is the smallest unit with a boundary cell membrane, which encloses the content within. The name was suggested by the scientist Robert Hooke in 1665.

Our main interest today is to compare plant Cells and Animal Cells.

Both cells(plants and animals) have a good number of differences and similarities, which we are going to look into. A small illustration is the presence of cell walls or chloroplasts in plant cells that are not present in an animal cell. Animal cells have a rounded shape, while plant cells have a fixed rectangular shape. As I said, they also have similarities. Both animal and plant cells are eukaryotic cells, which is the reason why both cells have several common features. Both animal and plant cells have the presence of a cell membrane, cell organelles, nucleus, mitochondria, etc.

Animal Cell and Plant Cell

Similarities

• Present of Cytoplasm
• Present of Ribosomes
• Present of Mitochondria
• The presence of Endoplasmic Reticulum (both smooth and Rough)
• Present of Peroxisomes
• The present of Golgi Apparatus
• The presence of Microtubules/ Microfilaments
• Present of Nucleus

Different

• Cell walls are absent from animal cells but present in plant cells.
• Animal cells have an irregular round shape, while plant cells have a fixed rectangular shape.
• Animal cells have one or more small vacuoles, while plat cells have One, large central vacuole that takes up to 90% of cell volume.
• Centrioles are present in all animal cells while in plant cells only present in lower plant forms (e.g. Chlamydomonas)
• Chloroplast is absent in animal cells while present in Plant cells (chloroplasts to make their food).
• Plastids are absent in animal cells while present in Plant cells
• Animal cells have only a cell membrane, while present in Plant cells have a Cell wall and a cell membrane
• Flagella is present in some animal cells ( e.g. mammalian sperm cells) while present in some plant cells (e.g. sperm of bryophytes etc)
• Lysosomes occur in the cytoplasm of animal cells, while Lysosomes are usually not evident in plant cells.
• Cilia is present in animal cells, while most plant cells do not contain cilia.

Cell Wall

The difference between plant cells and animal cells is clear concerning their shapes, plant cells are rectangular while animal cells are round in shape. Plant cells have a rigid cell wall that surrounds the cell membrane, while animal cells do not have the presence of a cell wall.

Chloroplasts

Plants used sunlight to produce energy through the process of photosynthesis, making use of the presence of chloroplast present in the cell. Chloroplast is not found in animal cells, as animal cells get their energy from the breakdown of food(glucose). So animal cells make use of the mitochondria, while plant cells make use of chloroplast.

Centriole

All animal cells have centrioles, while only some plant cells have centrioles. Centrioles in a plant cell can be found in the male gametes of charophytes, seedless vascular plants, etc.

Vacuoles

Plant cells have a large vacuole, which covers over 90% of the cell volume, and is used in storing water and maintaining cell turgidity. In the animal cells, we have one or small vacuoles which store water, ions, and waste.

Pictures of plant and animal cells

Structure of a Plant Cell

Structure of a Animal Cell

Thanks for reading.