Observation of Plant and Animal Cell

Let us perform an experiment to understand how does a cell look like under microscope?

Take an onion and cut it into two halves. Peel off a transparent piece of skin from the inner layer of onion with the help of a forceps. Place this transparent skin on a slide and add a drop of iodine solution to it. Carefully place the cover slip on the slide. Wipe off the excess amount of iodine solution from the slide with the help of tissue paper. Observe the slide under microscope. Carefully have a look on the shape of onion cell.

Experimental set up

Observation:

You can see several rectangular cells, each with a small, spherical nucleus in it. These are called epidermal cells that are found on the surface of the plant body.

Onion cells

Cells are basic unit of life that is capable of doing all the required biochemical processes that a normal cell requires to do in order to live. The basic need for the survival of all living organism are same. All living organisms need to digest food (to obtain energy), respire and to get rid of metabolic wastes. Who does all these functions of the body?

It is the cell that carries all these metabolic function in body. Hence, cell are called functional unit of life.

Observing Animal Cell

Take a cotton bud and gently rub it along inside of your cheek. Smear the cotton bud onto a slide. Add a drop of methylene blue on to the smear. Carefully place a covers slip on top of the slide. Now observe the slide under microscope.

(Note: Methylene blue is a dye used to stain and view animal cells)

Experimental set up

Observation

You can see several polygonal cells lying here and there on slide. This represents the structure of animal cell.

Differences between Plant and Animal Cell

Animal cell	Plant cell
Generally small in size	Usually larger than animal cells
Cell wall is absent	Cell wall is present
Plastids are absent	Plastids are present
Vacuoles are more in number and smaller in size	Vacuole is single and larger in size
Single, highly complex, and prominent Golgi apparatus is present	Many simpler units of Golgi apparatus, called dictyosomes, are present