Structural Features of Typical Prokaryotic Cells
- Animal and plant cells are eukaryotic cells, whereas bacterial cells are prokaryotic
- Prokaryotes have a cellular structure that is distinct from eukaryotes:
- Their genetic material is free in the cytoplasm and is circular
- Eukaryotic genetic material is packaged as linear chromosomes in the nucleus
- Prokaryotes lack membrane-bound organelles
- This means that they do not have any internal structures surrounded by membrane, e.g. a nucleus or mitochondria
- They are many times smaller than eukaryotic cells
- Prokaryotic cells are usually 1-5 μm in diameter, while eukaryotic plant cells can be 10-100 μm across
- Their ribosomes are structurally smaller (70 S) in comparison to those found in eukaryotic cells (80 S)
- Their cell walls are made of peptidoglycan rather than cellulose or chitin
- Their genetic material is free in the cytoplasm and is circular
- Prokaryotes are always unicellular, while eukaryotic animal and plant cells can function together in multicellular organisms
Prokaryotic cells have no internal membrane-bound structures, and are smaller than eukaryotic cells