Animal Cell vs Plant Cell

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Plant and animal cells have some structural differences. For example, animal cells do not have a cell wall where as plant cells do. Both plant and animal cells have plasma membranes.

Comparison chart

	Animal Cell	Plant Cell
Plasma Membrane:	only cell membrane	cell wall and a cell membrane
Microtubules/ Microfilaments:	Present	Present
Flagella:	May be found in some cells	May be found in some cells
Lysosomes:	Lysosomes occur in cytoplasm.	Lysosomes usually not evident.
Nucleus:	Present	Present
Cilia:	Present	It is very rare
Shape:	Round (irregular shape)	Rectangular (fixed shape)
Chloroplast:	Animal cells don't have chloroplasts	Plant cells have chloroplasts because they make their own food
Cytoplasm:	Present	Present
Endoplasmic Reticulum (Smooth and Rough):	Present	Present
Ribosomes:	Present	Present
Mitochondria:	Present	Present
Vacuole:	One or more small vacuoles (much smaller than plant cells).	One, large central vacuole taking up 90% of cell volume.
Centrioles:	Present in all animal cells	Only present in lower plant forms.
Plastids:	Absent	Present
Golgi Apparatus:	Present	Present
Cell wall:	Absent	Present

1 Chloroplasts
2 Shape
3 Vacuoles
- 3.1 Shape and size of vacuoles
- 3.2 Difference in function of vacuoles
4 Pictures of plant and animal cells
5 Related Articles
6 References

Chloroplasts

Plant cells have chloroplast for photosynthesis whereas animal cells do not have chloroplasts.

Shape

Another difference between plant cells and animal cells is that animal cells are round whereas plant cells are rectangular.
Further, all animal cells have centrioles whereas only some lower plant forms have centrioles in their cells.

Vacuoles

Shape and size of vacuoles

Animal cells have one or more small vacuoles whereas plant cells have one large central vacuole that can take up to 90% of cell volume.

Difference in function of vacuoles

In plant cells, the function of vacuoles is to store water and maintain turgidity of the cell. Vacuoles in animal cells store water, ions and waste.

Pictures of plant and animal cells

Structure of a Typical Plant Cell (click to enlarge)

Structure of a Typical Animal Cell (click to enlarge)

References

Comments: Animal Cell vs Plant Cell

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