đ» Big Picture: Every living thing is made up of cells. Plants and animals have pretty similar cells, save for a few key differences. Plants have three main structures that animals do notâa cell wall, a large central vacuole, and four specialized plastids called chloroplasts, chromoplasts, gerontoplasts, and leucoplasts. Show
Youtube Guide:Introductionđ± What do we have in common with plants? Itâs probably hard to say. But there are a few pretty cool things we share between us. For example, plants âsweatâ like we do through a process called transpiration. Even cooler is the fact that new studies show that plants can actually talk to one another through their root systems and fungal connections called mycorrhizal networks! Even with these similarities, itâs still likely a lot easier to list the ways that weâre different from one another. These differences go all the way down to the cellular level, where we still share some things in common, but there are a few pretty major differences. Letâs talk about them below. Lesson Objectives
Special Structures in Plant CellsThere are two kinds of eukaryotic cells: plants and animals. Both of these types of cells share many similar features within them, like a nucleus, a nucleolus, cell membrane, mitochondria, rough ER, smooth ER, golgi apparatus (golgi bodies), lysosomes, peroxisomes, and the list goes on. Even so, plant cells contain some specialized structures that animal cells do not. Features unique to a plant cell include a cell wall, large central vacuole, chloroplasts, and specialized plastidsâall of which weâre going to talk about today! Letâs get started. The Cell WallBoth plants and animals have a soft and flexible cell membrane called the plasma membrane that separates their interior from the environment and regulates the transport of molecules into and out of the cell. Unlike animal cells, however, plant cells also have a rigid structure attached to the exterior of their membrane called the Cell Wall. The cell wall, composed of cellulose, proteins, and other polysaccharides, contains tiny pores that allow for the exchange of water, minerals, and nutrients between the cell and its environment. This structureâs primary function is to provide structure, support, and protection for the cell. The Central VacuoleA vacuole is an organelle that stores and disposes of various substances, and both plants and animals have them. However, instead of the tiny vacuoles found in animal cells, plant cells have one large Central Vacuole filled with a fluid called Cell Sap. The primary purpose of the central vacuole is to store water and maintain turgor pressure, the force exerted by stored water against the cell wall. Turgor pressure changes as water moves into or out of a plant cell via diffusion during osmosis. The more water inside the central vacuole, the more turgid the cell, and the happier the plant. There is such a thing as too much water too though, which is where the rigid structure of the cell wall comes in to keep the cell from bursting. Source PlastidsPlastids are a group of organelles found in every plant cell that are involved in the synthesis and storage of food. The most well known plant plastids are chloroplasts, which weâll talk about first. Following that, weâll go over some of the other specialized plastids found in a plant cell: chromoplasts, gerontoplasts, and leucoplasts. ChloroplastsChloroplasts convert solar energy to chemical energy in a process called photosynthesis, during which plants convert solar energy, carbon dioxide, and water into glucose and oxygen. They contain an outer membrane, intermembrane space, inner membrane, stroma, and a thylakoid system, which is pretty similar to the structure of mitochondria. Both mitochondria and chloroplasts are thought to have evolved through the endosymbiosis theory, which is probably why they look so alike.
Chromoplasts, Gerontoplasts, and Leucoplasts
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FAQs:1. What cell structures do plant cells have that animal cells do not? A cell wall, a central vacuole, and specialized plastids. 2. What are the three types of plastids found within plant cells? Chromoplasts, gerontoplasts, and leucoplasts. 3. What five structures compose a chloroplast? An outer membrane, intermembrane space, inner membrane, stroma, and thylakoid system. 4. What is turgor pressure? The force exerted on the cell wall by water stored in the central vacuole. 5. Where is chlorophyll located in a plant cell? In the thylakoids of the thylakoid system in a chloroplast. 7. What is the purpose of the cell wall? To provide structure, support, and protection for the cell, and to keep it from bursting when water fills the central vacuole and increases turgor pressure. 8. What happens when a chloroplast gets old? It transitions into a gerontoplast which repurposes the organelle to be used elsewhere in the cell. We hope you enjoyed studying this lesson and learned something cool about the Plant Cell Structure! Join our Discord community to get any questions you may have answered and to engage with other students just like you! Don't forget to download our App and check out our awesome VR room for this guide - we promise, it makes studying much more fun đ Sources:
Which structure in plants is responsible for photosynthesis?In plants, photosynthesis takes place in chloroplasts, which contain the chlorophyll. Chloroplasts are surrounded by a double membrane and contain a third inner membrane, called the thylakoid membrane, that forms long folds within the organelle.
What is the specialized structure of the plant?Answer. The phloem is a specialized plant tissue, and the main function of the phloem is to transport sugars and amino acids around the plant. The transport of sugars by the phloem is âbidirectional,â which means it goes both directions: to and from the leaves and the rest of the plant.
What 3 structures are most important to photosynthesis?The primary cellular structures that ensure photosynthesis takes place are chloroplasts, thylakoids and chlorophyll. Photosynthesis takes place inside the chloroplasts that sit in the mesophyll of the leaves.
Which of the following plant tissues is specialized for photosynthesis?Most of the tissue in leaves is comprised of parenchyma cells, which are the sites of photosynthesis, and parenchyma cells in the leaves contain large quantities of chloroplasts for phytosynthesis.
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