Plant Cell
Plant Cell
1. Robert Hooke (1635-1703): In 1665, Hooke, an English scientist, examined thin slices of cork
under a microscope that he had designed. He observed a multitude of tiny, box-like structures
resembling the cells of a honeycomb. He named these structures “cells” based on their
resemblance to the cells inhabited by monks in a monastery.
2. Matthias Schleiden (1804-1881): Schleiden, a German botanist, was a co-founder of the cell
theory along with Theodor Schwann. In 1838, Schleiden published his findings, suggesting that
all plant tissues were composed of cells and that the cell was the basic unit of plant structure.
Together, the work of Hooke and Schleiden played a significant role in laying the foundation for the cell
theory, which states that all living organisms are composed of cells and that cells are the fundamental
units of life.
Robert Brown (December 21, 1773 – June 10, 1858) was born in Montrose, Angus, Scotland, to parents
James Brown and Helen Brown née Taylor. Most of Brown’s work was in botany, a branch of biology
focusing on the study of plants. Over time, his interests expanded to palynology and paleobotany.
Palynology deals with tiny particles, such as plant pollens and spores. Paleobotany, on the other hand,
studies the remains of once-living plants.
In 1831, he recognized the occurrence of nuclei in plant cells using a microscope while working on
fertilization in orchids and milkweeds. Brown was the first person to coin the term “nucleus” in a paper
presented to the Linnean Society, published in the Transactions in 1833. However, he initially thought the
structure was limited to plant cells since he conducted most of his observations in various plant
specimens.
Brown had even more discoveries beyond the nucleus. Early on in his career, Robert was collecting and
viewing different plant specimens and came upon one that had not been previously identified. He had
discovered a new species of grass that became known as Alopecurus alpinus.
The discovery of that plant was the first of many. As a matter of fact, Brown would ultimately discover
and help to name over 2,000 new species of plants during his time of studying in Australia. He also
collected over 3,400 different species of plants to include the 2,000 new ones that he discovered.
Brown thought the way plants were classified was not accurate and too strict, so he identified and
classified plants differently from how some other scientists classify plants. He published his way of
identifying plants, and it gained wide acceptance because it supported an already proposed classification
system known as the ‘natural system’. This contribution added several new genera and families of plants
to the natural classification system.
Both plant and animal cells are eukaryotic, so they contain membrane- bound organelles like the nucleus
and mitochondria.
However, plant cells and animal cells do not look exactly the same or have all of the same organelles,
since they each have different needs. For example, plant cells contain chloroplasts since they need to
perform photosynthesis, but animal cells do not.
• Both animal and plant cells have mitochondria, but only plant cells have chloroplasts. Plants don’t get
their sugar from eating food, so they need to make sugar from sunlight. This process (photosynthesis)
takes place in the chloroplast. Once the sugar is made, it is then broken down by the mitochondria to
make energy for the cell. Because animals get sugar from the food they eat, they do not need
chloroplasts: just mitochondria.
• Both plant and animal cells have vacuoles. A plant cell contains a large, singular vacuole that is used for
storage and maintaining the shape of the cell. In contrast, animal cells have many, smaller vacuoles.
• Plant cells have a cell wall, as well as a cell membrane. In plants, the cell wall surrounds the cell
membrane. This gives the plant cell its unique rectangular shape. Animal cells simply have a cell
membrane, but no cell wall.