Plant Cell Parts

It is a commonly known fact that plants are a highly eukaryotic organism. Their cells are membrane-bound and are with many cell organelles. Even animals belong to eukaryoutic groups, but there are certain distinct differences between plant cell parts and animal cell parts. Plant cells possess very well-developed cell walls, while an animal cell does not have that developed a cell wall. Plant cells have many such distinct differences, which can be observed on studying the plant cell model.

Cytoplasm and other organelles are very typical plant cell parts. Many scientific researches have been made to gain knowledge about various aspects of plants cell parts. Like every mechanical machine, which has dedicated parts for specific functions, plant cell parts also have highly specific and dedicated functions. The structure and functions of cytoplasm in itself is quite extraordinary.

Plant Cell Parts and Description

The following is a description of the parts of a plant cell and their functions. In the sketch here, the plant cell parts have been labeled very clearly.

Nucleus
It can be called the brain of the plant cell and the most important of all plant cell parts. This is because the cell nucleus performs all the administrative tasks of the cell. It coordinates all the metabolic functions. Cell growth, cell division and protein synthesis are some of the tasks that are coordinated by the nucleus.

Plastids
Plastids are those plant cells which carry pigments. So, it goes without saying that chloroplast happens to be the most important of all plastids, because they contain green chlorophyll pigments. Chloroplast plastids photosynthesize sunlight and make food for the plants.

Ribosome
These are the plant cell parts that predominantly contain ribonucleic acids (RNA). Their composition contains almost 60% of the ribonucleic acids and 40% of proteins. Ribosomes are those plant cell parts that are responsible for synthesis of proteins in plants.

Mitochondria
Complex carbohydrates and sugars are very difficult to breakdown. The mitochondria are responsible for this task. They break complex carbohydrates into very simple form, which is easily used in plants. Mitochondria do not directly supply energy to all plant cell parts, but they are still called the powerhouse of the cells.

Golgi Body
The Golgi body, also known as golgi complex or golgi apparatus, is used to transport material inside and outside the cell. Golgi body alters and prepares lipids for them to transport outside the cell, but before that they need to be synthesized by endoplasmic reticulum.

Endoplasmic Reticulum
Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) is a network of convulsed sacs, which are in turn interconnected. The cytoplasm of the plant cell and nucleus are connected by the endoplasmic reticulum. There are two types of ER, which are distinguished according to the presence of ribosome. They can be called smooth or rough. Endoplasmic reticulum is that structure which basically transports glycogens, proteins and other compounds.

Vacuoles
'Tugar pressure' is that pressure in a plant cell that helps in maintaining its fullness. Vacuoles in all of plant cell parts do the job of maintaining Tugar pressure. Basically, there are many vacuoles, but the centrally located one is larger than the others.

Peroxisomes
Fatty acids have to be broken down metabolically into simple sugar forms. Peroxisomes contain certain oxidative enzymes that are responsible for breaking such fatty acids into simpler forms. Peroxisomes also help chloroplasts in the process of photosynthesis.

In this article on plant cell parts and what they do, I have tried to explain the parts of a plant cell and the functions very briefly. The coordination of all functionalities in plants are very important for properly carrying out every metabolic activity. It all begins with the smallest parts of the plant, the plant cell parts.