Difference Between Plant cell and Animal cell

The cell is the fundamental unit of life. All the life activities are carried out by cells. The organisms can be classified based on the number of cells present in them. Unicellular organisms are single-celled, while multicellular organisms have a large number of cells.

Unicellular organisms are believed to be one of the earliest forms of life on earth. Eventually, more complex multicellular organisms evolved from these unicellular life forms over the aeons. Multicellular organisms have specialized cells with complicated cell organelles, which unicellular organisms typically lack.

In an ecosystem, plants have the role of producers, while animals have taken the role of consumers. Hence, their daily activities and functions vary, and so does their cell structure. Cell structure and organelles vary in plants and animals, and are primarily classified based on their function. The difference in their cell composition is the reason behind the difference between plant and animal cells.

Each cell organelle has a particular function to perform. Some of the cell organelles are present in both plant cells and animal cells, while others are unique to just one of them. Most of the earth’s higher organisms are eukaryotes, including all plants and animals. Hence, these cells share some similarities typically associated with eukaryotes.

For example, all eukaryotic cells consist of a nucleus, plasma membrane, cytoplasm,  peroxisomes, mitochondria, ribosomes and other cell organelles.

Differences Between Plant Cell and Animal Cell

Diagram showing the Difference between Plant cell and Animal cell

As stated above, both plant and animal cells share a few common cell organelles, as both are eukaryotes. The function of all these organelles is said to be very much similar. However, there are major differences between plant and animal cells.

The major differences between the plant cell and animal cell are mentioned below:

Plant Cell	Animal Cell
Cell Shape
Square or rectangular in shape	Irregular or round in shape
Cell Wall
Present	Absent
Plasma/Cell Membrane
Present	Present
Endoplasmic Reticulum
Present	Present
Nucleus
Present and lies on one side of the cell	Present and lies in the centre of the cell
Lysosomes
Present but are very rare	Present
Golgi Apparatus
Present	Present
Cytoplasm
Present	Present
Ribosomes
Present	Present
Plastids
Present	Absent
Vacuoles
Few large or a single, centrally positioned vacuole	Usually small and numerous
Cilia
Absent	Present in most of the animal cells
Mitochondria
Present but fewer in number	Present and are numerous
Mode of Nutrition
Primarily autotrophic	Heterotrophic

Conclusion

Both plant and animal cells comprise membrane-bound organelles, such as endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, the nucleus, Golgi apparatus, and lysosomes. The plant cell can also be larger than the animal cell. The normal range of the animal cell varies from about 10 – 30 micrometres and that of plant cell range between 10 – 100 micrometres.