Specialised animal and plant cells

In a nutshell

As multicellular organisms can be quite complex and have many body functions, they need to have different types of cells that are specialised to carry out a particular function. These cells have features that might be slightly different from the typical cell you have learnt about so far.

Specialised cells

Cells can develop specific features unique to that cell. These features help the cell be best suited to their function. Cells go through a process called differentiation to get different features. This involves genes being switched on and off, as genes control how a cell behaves and how they appear through the production of specific proteins.

In animals, all cells differentiate early on in life, but as we grow older our cells lose the ability to differentiate. To make more of the same type of cell, cells will undergo mitosis which produces identical clones.

In plants, cells can continue to differentiate throughout life. They differentiate based on where they are located in the plant.