Key Stage 3 · Year 7 · Science · 3 minutes

Animal and plant cells: what's the difference?

Same core parts. Plant cells add a wall, a large vacuole and often chloroplasts.

Key terms

Cell
A tiny living unit that all living things, including you and an oak tree, are built from.
Nucleus
The part of a cell that contains DNA, the instructions controlling what the cell does.
Mitochondria
Parts of a cell where respiration releases energy from food to power the cell.
Cell wall
A tough layer of cellulose fibres around a plant cell that strengthens it.
Chloroplast
A part of a plant cell that traps light so the plant can make its own food.
Vacuole
A large space in a plant cell, full of watery sap, that keeps the cell firm.

Transcript

0:00

Your body is built from trillions of tiny living units, called cells. An oak tree is built from cells too. So is a daisy. But is a plant cell the same as one of yours?

0:14

The name goes back to a book from sixteen sixty five. In it, Robert Hooke described a thin slice of cork under his microscope. It was full of tiny, empty boxes, like a honeycomb. He called them cells, a word that comes from the Latin for a small room.

0:34

First, an animal cell, like the ones lining your cheek. Around the outside is the cell membrane. It controls what enters and what leaves. Inside is the cytoplasm, a jelly like substance where many of the cell's chemical reactions happen.

0:52

The nucleus contains DNA, the instructions that control what the cell does. And these are mitochondria. Here, respiration releases energy from food, to power the cell.

1:06

Now a plant cell, from a leaf. Membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, mitochondria. All four are here too. But this leaf cell has three extras.

1:20

First, a tough cell wall, made of cellulose fibres, that strengthens the cell. Second, chloroplasts. They trap light, so the plant can make its own food. Third, a large vacuole, full of watery sap, that keeps the cell firm.

1:39

Why the extras? A plant can't pop out for a sandwich. It has to make its own food. And it has no skeleton, so strong walls and firm, full cells help to hold its leaves and soft stems up. Without enough water, the cells go soft, and the plant wilts.

1:58

Under a microscope, you can see some of this for real. Human cheek cells, stained pink. Soft shapes, each with a dark nucleus. Skin cells from an onion bulb. Clear walls, tightly fitted together, but no chloroplasts. The bulb is a food store, not a light catcher. And these moss leaf cells are packed with chloroplasts.

2:23

So remember. Both kinds of cell have a membrane, cytoplasm, a nucleus and mitochondria. Plant cells add a cell wall, a large vacuole, and often chloroplasts. Different parts, for a different way of life.

Sources

Every fact in the video, and where it comes from.

  1. 1
    gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in…
    • National curriculum in England, KS3 biology, 'Cells and organisation': cells as the fundamental unit of living organisms; the functions of the cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, vacuole, mitochondria and chloroplasts; the similarities and differences between plant and animal cells; observing cells using a light microscope.
  2. 2
    journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article
    • An adult human body contains about 30 trillion human cells (3.0 x 10^13 for a 70 kg reference man); the script says only 'trillions' so it also holds for children.
  3. 3
    ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/hooke.html
    • Robert Hooke's Micrographia was published in 1665; his most famous observation was of thin slices of cork, 'all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-comb'; what he saw were the box-like cell walls of dead cork tissue, which he named cells.
  4. 4
    en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cell
    • The word cell comes from Latin cella, a small room.
  5. 5
    thenational.academy/teachers/programmes/science-secondary-ks3/unit…
    • Animal cells: the cell membrane surrounds the cell and controls what substances enter and leave; the cytoplasm is the jelly-like substance where the chemical reactions of the cell take place; the nucleus contains DNA, which stores information that controls the activities of the cell; mitochondria use food and oxygen to provide energy for the cell in a process called (cellular) respiration.
  6. 6
    thenational.academy/teachers/programmes/science-secondary-ks3/unit…
    • Plant cells share the cytoplasm, cell membrane, nucleus and mitochondria with animal cells, and have additional structures: the cell wall and vacuole, and some have chloroplasts. The cell wall is made of fibres that strengthen the cell; chloroplasts trap light to enable the plant to make its own food; the vacuole contains watery sap which, when full, keeps the cell firm. Root cells have no chloroplasts.
  7. 7
    openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/4-3-eukaryotic-cells
    • Cellulose is the major organic molecule in the plant cell wall.
    • When a plant loses water from its central vacuole, the cell wall is left unsupported and the plant looks wilted; firm, full cells help hold up non-woody parts.
  8. 8
    commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buccal_Epithelium_Cells.jpg
    • Microscope image: stained human cheek (buccal epithelium) cells.
  9. 9
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrographia
    • Micrographia was published in January 1665; Hooke was the first to apply the word cell to biological objects (cork).
  10. 10
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilting
    • Wilting is the loss of rigidity of non-woody parts of plants when turgor pressure falls.
  11. 11
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_epidermal_cell
    • Epidermal cells of an onion bulb do not contain chloroplasts; the bulb stores energy rather than photosynthesising.
  12. 12
    commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Onion_Epidermis_Cells_W.M._40x_-_183…
    • Microscope image: onion epidermis cells (stained).
  13. 13

Image and sound credits

  • “Micrographia by Robert Hooke, 1665, England - Golub Collection of Antique Microscopes - DSC04817” by Daderot (CC0)
  • “Buccal Epithelium Cells” by Bondarev.gal, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
  • “Onion Epidermis Cells W.M. 40x - 183” by loganrickert, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
  • “Листик мха под микроскопом” by Andrei Savitsky, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

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