Structure of Prokaryotic Cells

Introduction- Higher eukaryote has multiple organs to perform specific functions such as liver, kidney and heart. Organs have specific tissues and each tissue is composed of cells. “Cell is the structural and functional unit of life” and it contains all necessary infrastructures to perform all functions. Based on cellular structure, cells are classified as prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. In most of the cases, prokaryotes are single cells where as eukaryotes are either single cells or part of multi-cellular tissues system. Besides this, both types of cells have several structural and metabolic differences as given in Table 21.1 and are discussed later in the lecture.

Structure of Prokaryotic cells- A prokaryotic cell is much simpler and smaller than eukarotic cells. It lacks membrane bound organelles including nucleus. A typical prokaryotic cells is shown in Figure 21.1, A. The description of different structural feature of prokaryotic cells is as follows-