Plant vs Animal Cells

Sections

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PLANTS VS ANIMAL CELLS

Domain Eukaryote

• Kingdom Plantae (plants)
• Kingdom Animalia (animals)

SHARED FEATURES

• Plasma membrane
• Cytosol
• Nuclear envelope
• Nuclear pores
• Nucleus
• Chromatin
• Nucleolus
• Ribosomes
• Endoplasmic reticulum (both smooth ER and rough ER) and ER lumen
• Golgi apparatus
• Endosome
• Mitochondria
• Peroxisome
• Cytoskeleton made up of: Microfilaments, intermediate filaments, and microtubules
• Centrosome

ANIMAL CELLS ONLY

• Lysosome
• Centriole
• Flagella (though not all animal cells have them and some plant sperm have them)

PLANT CELLS ONLY

• Cell wall (made of cellulose)
• Plasmodesmata (channels through the cell wall and plasma membrane connecting the cytoplasms of adjacent cells)
• Central vacuole (storage, waste breakdown, aids metabolism)
• Tonoplast (membrane enclosing central vacuole)
• Chloroplast (photosynthetic organelle) – Outer membrane, inner membrane, stroma (fluid within inner membrane), thylakoids

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• Now that we've learned the major components of a eukaryotic cell and their basic functions, let's learn some key differences between two types of eukaryotic cells: animal and plant cells.

• Start a table.

• Denote that both types of plants and animals belong to Domain Eukaryote.

• Then, denote that plants belong to Kingdom Plantae and Animals belong to Kingdom Animalia.

Within this tutorial, we will draw both plants and animal cells and the structures that are shared between them and those that only exist in one or the other.

Begin with three headings: Plant Cell, Shared Features, and Animal Cell.

• Under plant cell and animal cell, draw a plasma membrane that has two layers.

• Label the cytosol within each cell.

• In each cell, draw the nuclear envelope as a discontinuous double-membrane.

• Label the gaps in the envelope nuclear pores.

• Indicate that the nucleus lies within the nuclear envelope.

• Within each cells' nucleus, draw:
  • A representative thin strand of chromatin and
  • A nucleolus.

• In each cell, draw several free ribosomes suspended in the cytosol.

• Draw the endoplasmic reticulum continuous with the nuclear envelope.

• Show that the cisternae enclose a space called the "ER lumen."

• Next, show a representative portion of the ER as covered in ribosomes.
  • Label it rough ER.

• Label Smooth ER as those portions that lack ribosomes.

• Next, draw a Golgi apparatus as a series of stacked cisternae.

• Then, an endosome.

• Draw mitochondria

• Then, a peroxisome.

• Now, let's draw the cytoskeletal parts the microfilaments, the intermediate filaments, and the microtubules.

• Draw the centrosome.

Those are the structures found in both plant and animal cells. Now let's explore those structures that are different between the two cell types.

• In the animal cell only, draw a lysosome.

• Draw centrioles within the centrosome which plant cells do not have.

• While we did not add it to the diagram, write flagella which are generally found in animal cells but not plant cells.
  • However, put an asterisk after flagella to indicate that while they are found in eukaryotic animal cells, not all animal cells have them (plus, the sperm of some plant species have flagella too).

Let's illustrate the structures that are in a plant cell but not animal cell.

• Draw a hexagonal cell wall around the plasma membrane.
  • The cell wall is an outer layer of cellulose and protein that protects plant cells from damage and helps them maintain their shape.

• Draw plasmodesmata channels within the cell wall.
  • The plasmodesmata travel through both the cell wall and the plasma membrane to allow access to the cytoplasm.

• Draw a large vacuole in the center of the cell.
  • Label it central vacuole, which functions in storage, waste breakdown and metabolism.
  • It enlarges to promote plant growth and is part of the endomembrane system in plants.

• Label the tonoplast, which is the membrane enclosing the central vacuole.

Now let's focus on the chloroplast which are the photosynthetic organelles that convert sunlight to stored energy in sugars.

• Draw the outer membrane of a chloroplast.

• Show that chloroplasts have a double-membrane by drawing and labeling the inner membrane.

• Illustrate that a fluid called "stroma" fills the space within the inner membrane.
  • Free ribosomes as well as chloroplast DNA reside within the stroma.

• Draw stacks of disc-like thylakoids in the stroma.
  • We learn the role these structures play in photosynthesis elsewhere.

This concludes our tutorial on the differences between plant cells and animal cells.

UNIT CITATIONS:

1. Campbell, N. A. & Reece, J. B. Biology, 7th ed. (Pearson Benjamin Cummings, 2005).

2. Purves, W. K., Sadava, D. E., Orians, G. H. & Heller, H. C. Life: The Science of Biology. (Macmillan, 2000).

3. Roy, S. H. Comprehensive MCQs in Biology. (Golden Bells, 2005).

4. Pommerville, J. C. Fundamentals of Microbiology: Body Systems Edition. (Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2014).

5. Alberts, B., Bray, D., Hopkin, K., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K. & Walter, P. Essential Cell Biology, 3rd ed. (Garland Science, 2010).

6. Campbell, M. K. & Farrell, S. O. Biochemistry, 8th ed. (Cengage Learning, 2014).