CONTENT

• Introduction
• Mean & characteristics
• Parts and functions
• Comparison table
• Major differences
• Conclusion

So, in this content, we will be discussing the traits, functions, comparison, parts of an animal cell, and parts of a plant cell. Moreover, we will also be leading you towards the similarities and differences between animal cell and plant cell that happen to be seen in them vividly.

INTRODUCTION

The word “cell” originally comes from a Latin word that means tiny space rooms. This is one of the greatest discoveries of humankind in bioscience ever that took place in the year 1838 by two biologists named Schleiden and Schwann. At that time, humans get to know that all the living things in the world were made up of small units that later came to be known as cells.

Cells can be unicellular and multicellular, and they are present in millions and trillions in a singular organism. As we all know, cells are the basic or fundamental unit of our life. Any life form that takes place on earth is in the form of cells, further a group of cells combined to form a tissue, and this process continues until a developed organism is produced.

MEANING & CHARACTERISTICS

Animal cell and plant cell are categorized under eukaryotes as both have possessed the traits of the eukaryotic cell and i.e., one of the most common similarities that we found in these two.

                But besides these common traits in animal cell and plant cell, there are major no. of differences to exist that we will be covering in this article later on as we move ahead or you will also be getting answer to certain questions regarding animal cell organelles and their functions.

              Both animal cell and plant cell analogy have membrane-bound nuclei present within the cell surrounded by fluid containing certain cell organelles. These cell organelles have assigned specific tasks that they do perform to make the cell functional generally.

Various Features of Animal Cell and Plant Cell are as follows:

• First of all, both animal cell and plant cell are defined as eukaryotic cells due to the nature of eukaryotes they possess within themselves.

• Secondly, most of the plants are multicellular and less variety is found of unicellular. Animals are too unicellular and multicellular, containing millions and trillions no. of cells in a single being.

• Or even the outermost layer, the cell wall, exists only in the plant cell, whereas it is absent in the case of an animal cell as animal cell contained only cell membrane.

•  The size of a plant cell is normally varied between 10-100um, and if we talk about animal cells, it varies from 10 to 30um.

•  As per the size of both the cells, we can indicate that the size ratio of plants cell is comparatively much larger than that of animal cells.

Parts of an Animal Cell

Certain important parts of an animal cell that are found within it are as following mentioned below:

• Endoplasmic Reticulum: The endoplasmic reticulum is further divided into two parts, namely smooth endoplasmic reticulum and rough endoplasmic reticulum. They play a vital role in providing support to the animal cell to synthesize and process food within it in the form of mainly lipids and proteins.

• Mitochondria: Mitochondria is one of the important cell organelles in the animal cell as the functions and roles it plays are so needed to maintain the animal cell regimes. Moreover, it is the so-called powerhouse of the cell as it generates and stores energy in ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

• Plasma Membrane: The plasma membrane is one such thin outermost protective layer that protects the cell from any external infection and germs entering the cell. As it allows entry and exit of any substance or molecules from or into the cell and, i.e., one of the reasons the name knows it of the selectively permeable membrane.

• Cytoskeletal: Cytoskeletal provides mechanical support to the cell to keep on dividing themselves, and the cycle continues. It also provides strength and helps in giving shape to the cell. The cytoskeletal divided into three major parts microtubules, microfilaments, and intermediate filaments.

• Golgi Apparatus: The Golgi apparatus has multiple names; it is also known as the Golgi complex and Golgi body. The Golgi apparatus act as a packaging mechanism as ER (endoplasmic reticulum) sends protein to the Golgi body. Further, it wraps and folds them and transfers the protein to the destined place within the cell.

• Lysosomes: Lysosomes are known as the suicide bags of the cell as whenever they spot any sign of danger or any fatal being entering the nucleoid, they burst, and that’s how they can kill those harmful microbes. Lysosomes act like an artificial kidney and work similarly to it as it disposes of all the cell waste material.

Parts of a Plant Cell

Some of the important parts of a plant cell that are present in it are as follows:

• Cell Wall: The cell wall is the thickened external layer of the plant cell that provides rigid support to the cell, and it is the primary protective covering that comes before the cell membrane. The cell wall is also responsible for providing shape and size to the cell. It is made up of the complex substance cellulose.                             

• Plastids: Plastids are the term that is used as a whole form for chloroplasts, chromoplasts, and leucoplasts in which chloroplast are one of the important plastids which contain the green-colored pigment chlorophyll. In contrast, chromoplasts are mostly light yellow, and leucoplasts are colorless. Chloroplasts help manufacture the food in the plant cell under the presence of sunlight by the process of photosynthesis.

• Vacuole: There is only one vacuole present in the plant cell, which is extremely large so that it covers the larger part of the plant cell. Vacuoles are bounded to the membrane and are sacs like structure which stores fluid and solid contents. Many major substances like sugar, proteins, and amino acids which are important in multiple plant life stages, are stored in vacuoles.

• Cell Membrane: As we discuss above regarding plasma membrane in the animal cell section, Most of the features of the cell membrane are likely to same in both the type of cell as it controls and regulates the movement of substance inside and outside the cell and also give a signal to the cell in the various cellular process like diffusion and osmosis that happens to occur in the cell.

COMPARISON CHART      

(Plant Cell vs Animal Cell)

Difference Between Animal Cell and Plant Cell

The key points of difference between animal cell and plant cell are as following mention below:

• The plant cells are quite larger, while on the other hand, the size of the animal cells is usually smaller and spherical round-like structure.

• The nucleus is also present in both the kind of cell. Still, there is a distinction regarding the place where the nucleus is located, as in the plant cell, it is located alongside the cell membrane within the cell, and in the case of an animal cell, the nucleus is located at the center of the cell.

• In terms of the vacuole, the vacuole is one of the cell organelles via; we can also spot the differences between the two as there are only vacuoles in plant cells, whereas there are numerous no. of vacuoles present an animal cell.

• The chloroplast is being used as a warehouse in plant cells as it stores energy in the way of proteins, amino acids, and any other molecules. The same process is done by other organelles, i.e., mitochondria in an animal cell.

• Some organelles are only found in animal cells, such as centrosomes, desmosomes, and lysosomes. On the contrary, parts like plastids, chloroplasts, glyoximes only exist in plant cells.

•  One of the most salient features, i.e., the cell wall, is present in plant cells as a protective outer covering or layer. In contrast, it is not available in the animal cell as only a secondary layer (cell membrane) is common in both the cells.       

• Ribosomes are present in both animal and plant cell. Still, there is a wide range of differences between its working mechanism in animal cell and plant cell in terms of synthesis of protein, amino acids, and cellular motions.

• The Osmosis mechanism in hypotonic solution also differs as per animal cell and plant cell. The animal cell burst when water sips into it due to the non-availability of the cell wall, whereas the plant cell is swollen up when water comes into it but didn’t burst out as the cell wall is there.

CONCLUSION

In the above article, we may conclude that organelles in both animal cell and plant cell play an important role in various types of cellular processes as they all have a specific task in the daily life of a cell. They must do it regularly to regulate and maintain the functionality of the cell.