Plant vs Animal cells

 Almost everyone knows that every living thing has cells. Almost all living things have eukaryotic cells. There is only a few living things like bacteria that has prokaryotic cells. But did you know that there are 2 different kinds of eukaryotic cells. You and a plant have two different types of cells within you. So what are these cells? There is animal cells and there is plants cells. I think you can guess which one we have. In case you didn't it is animal cells. So you are probably thinking that that's cool and all, but what is the difference? Well that's exactly what I'm going to be talking about in this blog. 

Both plant and animal cells have a eukaryotic structure and they both do cellular processes like mitosis and meiosis. When looking at a picture of an animal and plant cell by first glance it may look like they are the same. But when we really look into the details, you can see that they are actually pretty different. All cells have organelles within them. Organelles are structures that have jobs to do within the cell. The nucleus, mitochondria, cell membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes, and peroxisomes are some organelles that you can find within both animal and plant cells. But there are a few that you can only find within a plant cell. 

One of these organelles is the cell wall. The cell wall is a rigid covering that protects the cell, plastids, and chloroplasts while animal cells do not. Another one is chloroplasts. One of the main differences between animal and plant cells is that within plant cells they make their own food through a process called photosynthesis. And photosynthesis takes place in chloroplasts; therefore only plant cells need them. Now the next organelle I am going to talk about might be a little confusing because animal cells can have these too. It is called a vacuole. A vacuole normally stores water and nutrients. But in a plant cells they have a central vacuole. The central vacuole regulates the cells concentration of water in changing environmental conditions. It also supports the cell wall. When you forget to water a plant it normally tends to start to wilt. This is because the water concentration in the soil starts to become lower than the water concentration in the plant. This causes the vacuole to shrink and when the vacuole shrinks, the cell wall becomes unsupported. The last organelle I am going to talk about are plastids. Plastids stores pigments in the plant cell which are used in photosynthesis and change the color of the cell. 

Another difference between animal and plant cells is that animal cells store energy in the form of glycogen and plant cells store energy as starch. Plants and animals both use glucose as their main energy source, but the way it is stored is different in animal and plant cells. They are also different in shape. Animal cells can be various sizes and are usually round. Plants cells are mostly all similar in size and have a rectangular shape.

Now hopefully after reading this you can tell the difference between an animal and a plant cell. There are many differences in these cells from the organelles to how they store energy. I think that it is important to know how your cells are different than the cells of your succulent or the trees outside. Now you do!

References:

1. The LibreTexts Library. Eukaryotic Cells - Comparing Plant and Animal Cells

2. Regina Bailey(2024). Differences Between Plant and Animal Cells. ThoughtCo.

3. Alberts B, Johnson A(2002). How Cells Obtain Energy from Food. Molecular Biology of the Cell(4th Edition).