COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS OF PLANT AND ANIMAL CELLS
Plants are sedentary lives and require a certain rigidity to maintain a posture of security. Therefore, plant cells have Cell Walls. Cell Walls ensure strength in the root and stem of the plant. Plant cells are very porous, allowing for absorbtion of water, which is the essential food of the plant. The cell wall of the plant cell is significantly thicker than cell membrane in animal cells. Think of a brittle sponge which acts as a point of entry for water and other nutrients as well as a skeletal system.
Plant cells also have what is known as Chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are found in mesophyll cells in the leaves of plants and they generate what is known as Glucose from carbon dioxide and water. To do this, they must have light. Chloroplasts also contain a green chemical called Chlorophyll. Thus the green pigment in plants. Chloroplasts are also DNA containing agents which are believed to be “ancient, symbiotic oxygen breathing bacteria and cyanobacteria…where the rest of the cell appears to be derived from an ancestral archaen prokaryotic cell-a theory called endosymbiotic theory.” New World Encyclopedia.org
Plant cells have rectangular shapes, in conjunction with the rigidity of the cell. Too, plant cells contain what is called Vacuoles. Each cell will hold one or more large Vacuoles, while the animal cell might have a few very small ones.
Vacuoles act kind of like immunity cells do in the human body. They detect and transport harmful materials within the cell out of the cell.
Animal cells have (instead of Cell Walls like plant cells) what is called Cell Membrane. Cell Membrane is a thin layer of fat and protein. Which is why animals most usually have ligaments and skeleton of some sort. In animal cells during Mitosis, no “cell plate” precludes the division of the cell. During Mitosis, the animal cell merely divides.
Centrioles will define the position of the nucleus and other organelles, by the Centriole’s own position. The inability of cells to properly use Centrioles for cilia and flagella has been linked to disease. Perhaps as the cause.
One of the most major and interesting differences between plant cells and animal cells is that plants do not get cancer. They can be attacked by bacteria causing what is termed Tumors, but plants do not get cancer. Probably due to the cell wall in plant cells, a cancerous type growth of cells cannot occur.
Sources: www.biology-online.org www.harweb.com wikipedia www.msu.edu
