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Something in life may ignite a feeling like someone by the next door but don’t know exactly. When you hear the prokaryotes and eukaryotes you may have the same feeling like that. It’s like you have heard it before but when you are asked to explain what prokaryotes and eukaryotes are and explain the key differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes you may end up giving up. The detailed analysis of prokaryotes and eukaryotes and the comparison of the key differences between them are studied in the class 10 or before biology classes. If you are a person who had a complete break up with biology after class 10 or you forgot the biology lessons back in school time, let us refresh the memory through this blog. Prokaryotes and eukaryotes are the favourite area of every competitive examiner in framing general science questions. Through this blog let us figure out the key differences and comparison between prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
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Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes – An Overview
Hope you have studied and heard about cells. Cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life. The word cell was first coined by the British scientist Robert Hook in the year of 1665. The study about the cell is called cytology. Even though the term was coined by Robert Hook in 1665, the cell theory was formulated in the period of 1838-39 by the scientists Schilden and Schwan. Main features of the cell theory are:
- All organisms are composed of cell
- Body of every organism is made up of cell
- Each cell arises from a pre existing cell
- Every organism starts it’s life from a single cell
Cells are classified into two kinds. They are prokaryotes and eukaryotes. From here onwards let us look into what prokaryotes and eukaryotes are.
Prokaryotic cell
These are primitive cells having three basic structures of a typical cell but lacking nuclear cell membrane. Nuclear material is present in a region called nucleoid. Other membrane bound organelles are absent such as mitochondria, lysosome, Golgi bodies etc. For example, viruses, bacteria and cyanobacteria are all prokaryotes. The smallest known prokaryotes are mycoplasma.
Eukaryotic cell
These are complete cells which contain membrane bound organelle and nucleus. Unicellular and multicellular plants and animals have eukaryotic cells. The biggest single cell organism is called acetabularia. Nucleus contain chromatin made up of DNA and histone protein. Nucleolus is present in the nucleus.
Even though Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes have their own unique features and characters, they possess certain similarities as well as differences.
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Similarities Between Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes
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- Both are two types of organization of life.
- Both contain a cell membrane, which is made up of a lipid bilayer i.e., a thin polar membrane made of two layers of lipid molecules.
- The genetic material of both prokaryotes and eukaryotes is DNA.
- Both of them contain ribosomes, which facilitates the translation of mRNA into an amino acid sequence.
- Both prokaryotes and eukaryotes are composed of a cytosol.
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Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes – Key Differences Comparison
| Prokaryotes specialities | Eukaryotes specialities |
| Size of cell is generally small | Size of cell is generally large |
| Nucleus is absent | Nucleus is present |
| It contains single chromosome in circular shape | It contains more than one chromosome |
| Membrane bound cells organelles are absent | Cell organelles are present |
| Prokaryotes are unicellular organisms. | Eukaryotes are multicellular organisms. |
| Cell division takes place by fission or budding | Cell division takes place by mitosis or meiosis. |
| It belongs to the kingdom Monera. | It belongs to kingdom Protista, kingdom Plantae, kingdom Fungi, and kingdom Animalia |
| Sexual reproduction of prokaryotes occurs by conjugation. | Sexual reproduction occurs through production of gametes in eukaryotes |
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Conclusion
Better late than never is not just a marketing line or a motivational line. If you are experiencing a gradual out of memory of things you have studied back in your school time, don’t hesitate to refresh. Refresh all the concepts key difference similarities regarding prokaryotes and eukaryotes through this blog. Pay special attention to those things if you are a competitive exam aspirant. Those areas are the favourite question pool area of every competitive exam designer. Enroll Entri for more general science updates. Keep studying, keep winning!
