Plant vs Animal Cells
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Lesson overview
Comparing plant and animal cells, explaining each plant-only structure, and using the comparison to identify cells and predict how they behave in water.
Go to lesson quiz →Exam guidance · JAMB UTME Speed Lens
Pacing
~40 seconds per MCQ (180 questions in 120 minutes, no negative marking).
How JAMB marks this
Fast dimensional/sign elimination and standard formula shortcuts — skip multi-line algebra when substitution tests options faster.
Watch out for
UTME distractors routinely include the intermediate value (e.g., forgetting to convert cm³ to dm³ or °C to Kelvin).
Lesson content
Overview
Why does a wilted spinach (efo) leaf firm up when you soak it in water, while a red blood cell placed in pure water swells and bursts? The answer lies in the structures plant cells have and animal cells lack. Plants cannot walk to find food, have no skeleton and must make their own food, and each plant-only structure solves one of those problems. In this lesson you will compare plant and animal cells feature by feature, explain the job of the cell wall, chloroplast and large vacuole, and use the differences to identify cells under the microscope and predict what happens to them in water.
Key structures
Cell wall: a rigid, fully permeable layer made mainly of cellulose, outside the cell membrane of plant cells. It gives shape and support and stops the cell bursting. Chloroplast: a disc-shaped organelle containing the green pigment chlorophyll; it is the site of photosynthesis. Vacuole: a fluid-filled space. Plant cells have one large permanent vacuole filled with cell sap and bounded by a membrane called the tonoplast; animal cells have only small, temporary vacuoles. Turgor: the pressure of the cell contents pushing outwards against the cell wall when the vacuole is full of water.
Why plants need these structures
The cell wall supports the plant. Because cellulose is strong and inelastic, a plant cell that takes in water by osmosis swells only until the stretched wall pushes back. The cell becomes turgid, and thousands of turgid cells hold up a young stem or a leaf blade like an air-filled tyre. Chloroplasts let the plant make its own food. They are most numerous in palisade mesophyll cells near the upper surface of the leaf, where light is strongest. Root cells, which are in the dark, have none. The large vacuole stores water, sugars, salts and pigments, and keeps the cell turgid. If a plant cell loses water, the vacuole shrinks and the cytoplasm pulls away from the wall: the cell is plasmolysed and the plant wilts. Animal cells lack a wall, so they have no protection from bursting. Instead, the animal body keeps the blood and tissue fluid at the right concentration (osmoregulation by the kidneys) so cells neither swell nor shrink. Animal cells store carbohydrate as glycogen and fat, plant cells as starch and oils.
Worked example 1: identifying a cell
Under a microscope a cell has a regular, box-like outline, a nucleus pushed to one side and a large clear central area, but no green discs. Is it a plant or an animal cell?
Active Worked Example · Predict Step 1
3 stepsWrite down the formula, rule, or first move you would make before revealing Step 1.
Worked example 2: plant cells in different solutions
Pieces of yam tuber are placed in distilled water, in a solution equal to the cell sap, and in a strong salt solution. Predict the state of the cells in each.
Active Worked Example · Predict Step 1
4 stepsWrite down the formula, rule, or first move you would make before revealing Step 1.
Worked example 3 (UTME standard): reasoning from structure
Cell X has chloroplasts but no cell wall and moves with a flagellum. Cell Y has a cell wall and a large vacuole but no chloroplasts. Which statements are correct? (i) X can photosynthesise. (ii) Y must be an animal cell. (iii) X could be Euglena.
Active Worked Example · Predict Step 1
3 stepsWrite down the formula, rule, or first move you would make before revealing Step 1.
Common traps
• Plant cells have BOTH a cell wall and a cell membrane. The wall is fully permeable; the membrane is partially permeable. • Not every plant cell has chloroplasts. Root hair, onion and xylem cells do not. • Plant cells do not burst in water; they become turgid. Animal cells burst. • Starch is the plant store, glycogen the animal store. Glycogen is sometimes called animal starch, but it is a different polymer.
Summary
• Shared: cell membrane, nucleus, cytoplasm, mitochondria, ribosomes. • Plant only: cellulose cell wall (support), chloroplasts (photosynthesis), large permanent vacuole (storage and turgor); starch as the store. • Animal only: centrioles, small temporary vacuoles; glycogen as the store. • In water, plant cells become turgid and animal cells burst; in strong salt solution, plant cells plasmolyse and animal cells crenate.
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