The diagram given below represents a stage during cell division. Study the same and answer the questions that follow: The diagram given below represents a stage during cell division. Study the same and answer the questions that follow:
Identify whether it is a plant cell or an animal cell. Give a reason in support of your answer.
Topic: Plant or animal cell
Answer
It is a PLANT CELL.
Reason: a CELL WALL is present and there is NO ASTER at the poles — higher plant cells possess no centrioles, so no aster can form. (In an animal cell the centrioles and their radiating asters would be visible, and there would be no cell wall.)
Give the identification AND the visible reason — the question asks for both.
TWO FEATURES decide it, and either is sufficient: CELL WALL — present in plants, absent in animals. A plant cell in division keeps its rigid rectangular outline; an animal cell is rounded. ASTER — the star-shaped rays around the centrioles. Present in animals, ABSENT in higher plants.
The second difference between plant and animal mitosis, worth knowing though not visible at this stage: CYTOKINESIS occurs by a CELL PLATE forming from the centre outwards in a plant, and by FURROWING from the periphery inwards in an animal — because you cannot pinch a rigid box in half.