Have you ever wondered what differentiates a human from a plant? They’re both living organisms that reside on the planet Earth, living dependent on the atmosphere around them. The difference lies in the building blocks of life – cells.
To start, both cells are eukaryotic – they have nucleases separate from the rest of the cell structure. Animal cells, however, are generally smaller than that of plant cells. Animal cells are also rounder, and more flexible than plant cells. Most plant cells have an outer layer called the cell wall, which gives it a definitive, rigid structure. This gives most plants the hard outer shell they have.
Most notably, cells rely on photosynthesis to survive. In doing so, they have a cell organelle called the chloroplast. What the chloroplast does is help the plant cell absorb sunlight to undergo photosynthesis. Furthermore, the pigment, chlorophyll, is contained within the chloroplast structure, giving plants their iconic green shade.
Another big difference is the difference in vacuole sizes. The purpose of the vacuole is to store important nutrients for the cell’s needs. In plants, the central vacuole can take up to 90% of the cell’s space. In comparison, the animal cell has much smaller vacuoles. These small but crucial differences ultimately make up the differences in living organisms on this Earth.
References
Bailey, Regina. “What Are the Differences between Plant and Animal Cells?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 2 May 2024, www.thoughtco.com/animal-cells-vs-plant-cells-373375.
Written by Ivory Chen from MEDILOQUY