How Are an Animal Cell & a Plant Cell Different?
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Cell Wall
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A major and fundamental difference between animal cells and plant cells is that plant cells have a cell wall and animal cells do not. The cell wall is not to be confused with the cell membrane; both plant and animal cells have a cell membrane. The cell membrane is a composed of a double layer of lipid molecules with special proteins embedded in it or attached to it.
The plant's cell wall, on the other hand, is composed of an array of glucose molecules all attached together to from a polymer called cellulose. The cellulose is formed into structures called microfibrils and is accompanied by other sugar-based compounds including pectins. As the plant cell develops, the younger cell often has what is called a primary cell wall and later a secondary cell wall develops. The secondary wall is thicker and more rigid in structure. All of these structural components are absent in animal cells.
Organelles
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Common to both plant and animal cells are a variety of subcellular structures called organelles. Many of the organelles are similar in structure and function in both plants and animals. Unlike animal cells, though, plant cells manufacture their own food supply using water, carbon dioxide and sunlight in the process of photosynthesis. To accomplish this, plant cells feature special organelles within the cell called chloroplasts.
Chloroplasts are one type of so-called plastid present in plant cells but not in animal cells. Plastids are pigmented organelles, each type serving a particular biochemical function in the plant cell. In the case of chloroplasts, the bioactive green pigment is chlorophyll, whose function is to convert light energy into chemical energy. The chloroplast has a substructure of---among other things---objects called thylakoids. The thylakoids are arranged in stacks, and it is in these stacks that the chlorophyll molecules are located. These are all features of plant cells that are lacking in animal cells.
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While plant cells have chloroplast and animal cells don't, there is an organelle that animal cells have but plant cells do not---the centriole. Scientists don't thoroughly understand the centriole's function in the animal cell. It is involved in cell division but doesn't seem to be essential, since animal cells whose centrioles have been destroyed can still divide. And plant cells naturally lack centrioles altogether but are able to divide well without them. Whatever the explanation turns out to be, the centriole or the lack of it is one feature that distinguishes plant cells from those of animals.
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