[Chemistry4me (OP)]

What is the difference between a plant cell and an animal cell? Structure? Shape? etc...
As much and as detailed information as you can give please.  []

[lancenti]

Plant Cells
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1. Cell Wall
2. Chlorophyll

Animal Cells
------------
1. No Cell Wall

Structurally speaking, Plant Cells are more rigid bodies due to the presence of the cell wall. When submerged into a hypotonic solution, they become turgid and in hypertonic solutions they plasmolyse. Animal cells, on the other hand, will lyse and crenelate respectively.

Next difference that I know of would be that animal cells typically do not possess photosynthetic organelles. That's pretty 'duh', I know...

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

What about a vacuole?

[logicat5]

Quite a bit! Both are eukaryotic cells, but only plant cells have cell walls, vacuoles and chloroplasts (what makes leaves green)

Plant cells are more turgid due to the vacuole which is filled with sap and surrounded by a membrane called the tonoplast. Also they are larger than animal cell vacuoles.

Cell walls are made up of cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin and lignin. In the case of fungi, it is chitin.

Chloroplasts contain chlorophyll for photosynthesis.

Since animal cells don't have cell walls, they can morph easily and this is most obviously seen in phagocytic cells which engulf other cells.

Hope this helps?!

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

Yes, that helps a lot...[]

What about Mitochodria and ribosomes? Do their numbers vary between plant and animal cells?

[logicat5]

In some plants, like conifers/flowering ones, they dont't have flagellae and centrioles like animal cells.

Both plant and animal cells have ribosomes and mitochondria, but some plants, like algae, have cyanobacteria also which, like mitochnodria, have their own DNA too.

But other than this, as far as I know, amount of mitochondria and ribosomes between plant and animal cells don't differ. Or at least not much I imagine.  []

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

In some plants, like conifers/flowering ones, they dont't have flagellae and centrioles like animal cells.

Sorry, could you please remind me again what flagellae and centrioles are? Aren't flagellae what they use to move around?

[logicat5]

Sure! Flagellae are motile structures, yes. they are found in bacterial and eukaryotic cells and aid movement.
Centrioles are made up of microtubules (usually 9) and are important in cell division.

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

So why do animal cells need flagellae in the first place?

[Phil1907]

The primary difference is the chloroplast - and photosynthesis.  Unlike the silliness offered - vacuoles, mitochondria, centrioles, flagella, ribosomes are not discerning criteria.  Cyanobacteria and fungi are neither plants nor animals - the former is a prokaryote.  Not all plants have cell walls and the citation of phagocytes is irrelevant..

[Chemistry4me (OP)]

Well okay, you sound like the expert Phil1907! [][]

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So why do animal cells need flagellae in the first place?

[logicat5]

I´d like to invite Phil1907 to dinner...

[Phil1907]

Hey! I'll take dinner!

Flagella give the possessor a competitive fitness advantage - reproductive, access to food, whatever.  Evolutionary theory doesn't help with the why in the 1st place.  Maybe an endosymbiont, series of mutations, combinations of both, aliens, who knows.