cell wall,

a specialized form of extracellular matrix that surrounds every cell of

a plant.

The cell wall is responsible for many of the characteristics that

distinguish plant cells from animal cells.

Although often perceived as an inactive product serving mainly

mechanical and structural purposes, the cell wall actually has a
multitude of functions upon which plant life depends.

Such functions include:

(1) providing the living cell with mechanical protection and a

chemically buffered environment,
(2) providing a porous medium for the circulation and distribution of
water, minerals, and other small nutrient molecules,

providing rigid building blocks from which stable structures of higher

order, such as leaves and stems, can be produced, and

(3) providing a storage site of regulatory molecules that sense the

presence of pathogenic microbes and control the development of
tissues.

Certain prokaryotes, algae, slime molds, water molds, and fungi also

have cell walls. 
Bacterial cell walls are characterized by the presence of peptidoglycan,
whereas those of Archaea characteristically lack this chemical.
Algal cell walls are similar to those of plants, and many contain specific
polysaccharides that are useful for taxonomy.
Unlike those of plants and algae, fungal cell walls lack cellulose entirely
and contain chitin. The scope of this article is limited to plant cell walls.

Difference Between Plant, Animal, and Bacterial Cell

Characteristic Animal Cell Plant Cell Bacterial Cell

Size Animal cells Plant cells are The bacterial cell is

are generally large. very small.
small in size The average size It is about 0.5 -5.0 μm
when of a plant cell  is in diameter almost
 compared to
the plant cell,
on average
about one-tenth the
they are 10 10 -100 μm in
size of a eukaryotic
-20 μm diameter
cell.
(micrometres)
in diameter.  

Type Eukaryotic cell Eukaryotic cell Prokaryotic cell

Animal cells
vary in shape
and are
generally
irregular due
to the lack of a Bacterial cells are of
cell wall. They Plant cells are different shapes such
can be flat, similar and as spherical (cocci),
Shape round, oval, typically rod (bacilli), spiral
rectangular, rectangular or (spirilla), comma
concave, rod- cube-shaped. (vibrios) and corkscrew
shaped, or (spirochaetes).
spherical and
are mostly
defined by the
function they
perform.

Cell Wall Animal cells Plant cells have Bacterial cells have a
lack cell walls rigid cell walls cell wall surrounding
but the cell that surround the the inner components
membrane plasma of the cell. Apart from
protects the membrane. It providing strength to
cell from provides tensile the cell, it also helps in
external strength and maintaining the cell
damage and protection shape.  Bacterial cell
also plays a against walls are made of
major role in mechanical and peptidoglycan(murein).
selective osmotic stress.
permeability Plant cell walls
for the inflow are made up of
and outflow of pectic
nutrients, polysaccharides,
water, and proteins,
 cellulose,
other phenolic
molecules. compounds, and
water.

The animal
cell has a
well-defined The plant cell has
nucleus and a well-defined
comprises nucleus that
genetic stores the
material. It genetic material Bacterial cells lack
also controls and also membrane-bound
Nucleus the activities coordinates the nuclei. The genetic
of the cell by cell’s activities material lies suspended
regulating such as cell in the cytoplasm.
gene division,
expression, metabolism,
hence known growth, and
as the control protein synthesis.
centre of the
cell.

Animal cells
have generally
Plant cells have Bacterial cells have
smaller
larger vacuoles larger vacuoles and
vacuoles
Vacuoles that help help to store ions and
which
maintain water maintain water
sequester
balance. balance.
waste
products.

Large 80S Large 80S

Ribosomes Small 70s ribosomes.
ribosomes ribosomes

Lysosomes Animal cells Lysosomes are A lysosome is absent in

have many small and less in bacterial cells.
lysosomes plant cells and .
that contain are not needed
digestive as they have a
enzymes to rigid cell wall that
break down protects from
the molecules foreign bodies
and to protect that lysosomes
them from digest.
 foreign
bodies.

Mitochondria Present Present Absent

Animal cells
have
centrioles
located in the
cytoplasm
near the
Centrioles are Centrioles are not
nucleus. They
Centrioles absent in plant present in bacterial
are made of
cells. cells.
microtubules
and their
major function
is to assist the
cell division
process.

Animal cells Plant cells have

Golgi have larger small and larger There are no Golgi
apparatus and fewer numbers of Golgi bodies in bacteria.
Golgi bodies. bodies.

Animals
cannot
produce their
own food from
simple Bacteria can obtain
inorganic Plants make their energy from the
substances own food in the decomposition of dead
Method of like carbon-di- presence of organisms or by
nutrition oxide and sunlight and performing
water and hence are called photosynthesis. They
depend on autotrophs. are both heterotrophs
other and autotrophs.
organisms of
food. Hence
they are called
heterotrophs.

Plastids Absent Present in plant Absent.

cells, they give
pigmentation
 colour and also
facilitate trapping
of sunlight for
photosynthesis.

Microbial cell wall

Cell wall

The structure of peptidoglycan

The cell envelope is composed of the cell membrane and the cell wall.
As in other organisms, the bacterial cell wall provides structural integrity
to the cell. In prokaryotes, the primary function of the cell wall is to
protect the cell from internal turgor pressure caused by the much higher
concentrations of proteins, and other molecules inside the cell compared
to its external environment.
The bacterial cell wall differs from that of all other organisms by the
presence of peptidoglycan which is located immediately outside of the
cell membrane. Peptidoglycan is made up of a polysaccharide backbone
consisting of alternating N-Acetylmuramic acid (NAM) and N-
acetylglucosamine (NAG) residues in equal amounts.
 Peptidoglycan is responsible for the rigidity of the bacterial cell wall, and
for the determination of cell shape. It is relatively porous and is not
considered to be a permeability barrier for small substrates.
While all bacterial cell walls (with a few exceptions such as
extracellular parasites such as Mycoplasma) contain peptidoglycan, not
all cell walls have the same overall structures.
Since the cell wall is required for bacterial survival, but is absent in
some eukaryotes, several antibiotics (notably
the penicillins and cephalosporins) stop bacterial infections by interfering
with cell wall synthesis, while having no effects on human cells which
have no cell wall, only a cell membrane.
There are two main types of bacterial cell walls, those of gram-positive
bacteria and those of gram-negative bacteria, which are differentiated by
their Gram staining characteristics.
For both these types of bacteria, particles of approximately 2 nm can
pass through the peptidoglycan.
 If the bacterial cell wall is entirely removed, it is called a protoplast while
if it's partially removed, it is called a spheroplast. Beta-lactam
antibiotics such as penicillin inhibit the formation of peptidoglycan cross-
links in the bacterial cell wall.
The enzyme lysozyme, found in human tears, also digests the cell wall
of bacteria and is the body's main defense against eye infections.
The gram-positive cell wall
Gram-positive cell walls are thick and the peptidoglycan (also known
as murein) layer constitutes almost 95% of the cell wall in some gram-
positive bacteria and as little as 5-10% of the cell wall in gram-negative
bacteria.
The gram-positive bacteria take up the crystal violet dye and are stained
purple. The cell wall of some gram-positive bacteria can be completely
dissolved by lysozymes which attacks the bonds between N-
acetylmuramic acid and N-acetylglucosamine. In other gram-positive
bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, the walls are resistant to the
action of lysozymes.
 They have O-acetyl groups on carbon-6 of some muramic acid
residues. The matrix substances in the walls of gram-positive bacteria
may be polysaccharides or teichoic acids.
The latter are very widespread, but have been found only in gram-
positive bacteria. There are two main types of teichoic acid: ribitol
teichoic acids and glycerol teichoic acids.
The latter one is more widespread. These acids are polymers
of ribitol phosphate and glycerol phosphate, respectively, and only
located on the surface of many gram-positive bacteria. However, the
exact function of teichoic acid is debated and not fully understood.
A major component of the gram-positive cell wall is lipoteichoic acid.
One of its purposes is providing an antigenic function. The lipid element
is to be found in the membrane where its adhesive properties assist in its
anchoring to the membrane.
The gram-negative cell wall
Gram-negative cell walls are much thinner than the gram-positive cell
walls, and they contain a second plasma membrane superficial to their
thin peptidoglycan layer, in turn adjacent to the cytoplasmic membrane.
Gram-negative bacteria are stained as pink colour.
The chemical structure of the outer membrane's lipopolysaccharide is
often unique to specific bacterial sub-species and is responsible for
many of the antigenic properties of these strains.