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Animal cell

We have to learn to understand some technical terms of molecular biology and biochemistry to understand the structure of a cell.

One difference between an animal cell and a cell of a plant is that the plant's cell has a cell wall on top of the cell membrane.

Prokaryotes

Procarya, Procaryota; Greek pro = before and karyon = nut, kernel
Procaryotes are cellular organisms without a nucleus.
The DNA is located in the cytoplasm.
Some cell organelles are missing, like the mitochondria.
Replication is asexual, mostly done by cell division.
An example are the bacteria.

Eukaryotes

Eucaryota; Greek eu = good and karyon = nut, kernel
Eukaryotes are all organisms having a nucleus and a cell membrane.
Eukaryotes have several chromosomes, which makes a difference to prokaryotic cells.
Eukaryotic cells are structured by cell organelles, which have different functions like the organs of a body, for example nucleus, mitochondria.
An example are animals, plants and humans.

You will need the knowledge about the structure of an eukaryotic cell to understand several congenital defects, as for example the gangliosidosis.