ANIMAL AND PLANT CELLS HAVE SOME COMMON
In animals and plants each cell is surrounded by a very thin plasma (cell surface) membrane, which is too thin to be seen a light microscope.
Cell has a nucleus which is a relatively large structure. The deeply staining material in the nucleus is called chromatin and is mass of loosely coiled threads. This material collects together to form visible separate chromosomes during nuclear division. It contains DNA which controls the activities of nucleus.
The material between the nucleus and the plasma membrane is known as cytoplasm. Organelles themselves are often surrounded by membrane so that their activities can be separated from the surrounding cytoplasm. This is called compartmentalization. Since each type of organelles has its own function the cell is said to show division of labour.
The most numerous organelles seen with the light microscope are usually mitochondria.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ANIMAL AND PLANT CELLS:
The only structure commonly found in animal cells which us absent from plant cells in the centriole. Under the light microscope it is a small structure close to the nucleus. It is involved in nuclear division.
Individual plant cells are More easily seen with a light microscope than animal cells are because they are usually larger and surrounded by a relatively rigid cell wall outside the plasma membrane (singular plasmodesma) which pass through pore like structures in the walls of these neighbouring cells.
Mature plant cells differ from animal cells in having a large central vacuole and chloroplast in case of photosynthetic cell.
The vacuole is surrounded by a membrane, the tonoplast which controls exchange between the vacuole and the cytoplasm. The fluid in the vacuole is a solution of mineral salts, sugars, oxygen, carbon dioxide, pigments, enzymes and organic compounds including some waste products.
Vacuoles also help to regulate the osmotic properties of cells.
A large proportion of the inside of the cell is taken up with a fluid-filled compartment known as the vacuole. Together the wall and vacuole maintain the shape of the whole cell.
Plant cells have specialized organelles, the chloroplasts, which enable them to make their own food by photosynthesis.