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Difference between animal cells and plant cells that you need to know

Illustration of animals and plants. Photo: Chesna from Pixabay

Cell difference animal and cells plant contained in the structure. Some parts of animal cells are absent cell plants, and vice versa.

Quoting Biology for high school class XI published by Erlangga Publisher, animal cells have centrioles which are not present in plant cells.

Similarly, plant cells have cell walls, plastids, and vacuoles that are not present in animal cells.

The following is an explanation of the differences between animal cells and plant cells:

Difference between animal cells and plant cells and their functions

Animal cell structure. Photo: brgfx / Freepik

As seen in the picture above, the largest part of an animal cell is the nucleos.

In animal cells, there are two centrioles that are inside the centrosome. These centrioles will separate towards opposite poles when cell division occurs.

The centrioles also produce spindle threads that will bind the chromosomes.

Usually, animal cells do not have vacuoles. If vacuoles are found in animal cells, they must be very small.

Plant cell structure. Photo: brgfx / Freepik

The parts of a plant cell that are not found in animal cells are the cell wall, plastids, and vacuoles.

The plant cell wall is located outside the plasma membrane. This plasma membrane is composed of polysaccharides consisting of pectin and hemicellulose. Meanwhile, the plant cell wall is formed from diktiosomes.

The role of the plant cell wall is as cell turgidity and causes its shape to remain unchanged. Plant cell walls are divided into two types, namely primary and secondary cell walls.

Primary primary cell walls are commonly found in young growing cells, collenchyma cells, and parenchyma cells. As for the secondary cell walls, only mature cells.

Apart from the cell wall, the parts of plant cells that are not found in animal cells are plastids. Plastids are pigment-forming organs in plants.

Plastids themselves vary in each plant, depending on their function. The following are the types of plastids found in plant cells:

  • Chromoplasts which form pigments in red, yellow, or orange. Chromoplasts are commonly found in carrots.

  • Leukoplas or colorless plastida. Leukoplas are found in parts of plants that have never been exposed to light, such as stem piths, embryonic cells, and other plant parts in the soil.

  • Amyloplasts are plastids that contain starch.

  • Chloroplasts are plastics that contain chlorophyll. Chloroplasts can be found on green plants, such as algae, ferns, mosses, and flowering plants.

The last part of a plant cell that is not present in an animal cell is a vacuole. This vacuole is permanent, large in size, and is bounded by a tonoplast membrane.

The function of vacuoles is very important for plants, including:

  • A food reserve. For example, in the roots of cassava which store flour and the stems of sugar cane which store sugar.

  • Storing the color pigment commonly found in flower crowns, so that the flowers become more beautiful.

  • Storing essential oils or etheric oils, such as in eucalyptus oil and mint leaves.

  • Storing metabolic waste, such as rubber latex.

Differences in the structure of animal cells and plant cells

Illustration of animals and plants. Photo: Unsplash / Frano Duvnjak

So, the striking differences between animal and plant cells are:

  • In plant cells there are vacuoles, whereas in animal cells there are no vacuoles or are very small in size.

  • The cell wall is found only in plant cells, not in animal cells.

  • Animal cells or plant cells have a cell membrane.

  • The cell organelles in animal cells are the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, peroxisomes, Golgi complex, mitochondria, lysosomes, and centrioles.

  • Then, the cell organelles in plant cells are the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, peroxisomes, glyoxisomes, Golgi complexes (diktiosomes), mitochondria, and plastids.

That is the difference between animal cells and plant cells. In conclusion, animal cells have centrioles which function as cell division. Whereas in plant cells, there are cell walls, plastids, and vacuoles.

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