Plant cell structures:
If we were to compare an animal cell with a plant cell several differences would be obvious:
| Animal cell | Plant cell |
| internal or external skeleton | each cell has a cell wall, plasmodesmata as well as cytoskelton to support it |
| division involves 'pinching in' of cell | cell plate must be produced during telophase |
| centrioles | centrioles generally lacking |
| no plastids | a variety of plastids: double membraned sacs for food manufacture or storage |
| small or absent | vacuoles |
Why some of these differences should exist should be fairly obvious...but others not so. Logic through these differences.
On the following pages we'll study those structures unique to plants, with the hopes of gaining a perspective on how or why plants evolved them.
| introduction | cell walls |
| plastids | cytoskeleton |
| vacuoles | microbodies |