How do Bacterial cells differ from Human cells - BetterHealthFacts.com

Bacteria are microorganisms known to cause infections and diseases in humans. However this fact is widely misunderstood as our body has got more bacterial cells than human cells. Most of the bacteria are good for us and just a few percent of them are harmful for us. Those few percent of bacteria has made a negative image of bacteria in our mind and we, the humans, have done a lot of research to understand the structure of bacteria. Here we will tell you how a bacteria cell is different from human cell.

Human Cells are well known as eukaryotic cells, while bacteria cells are known as prokaryotic cells.
Nucleus, mitochondria, chloroplasts, Golgi, and endoplasmic reticulum are well known membrane-bound compartments with a cell. These tiny parts of cell are known as organelles and they define the property and function of a cell. These organelles are the major factor that differentiate a human cell (eukaryotic cell) from a bacterial cell (prokaryotic cell).

How do Bacterial cells differ from Human cells ?

• The very basic difference between human cell (eukaryotic cell) and bacterial cell (prokaryotic cell) is that eukaryotic cells have organelles while prokaryotic cells don't have any membrane bound organelles, not even a nucleus. Prokaryotes include two groups: Bacteria and Archaea .
• Bacterial cells are around 10 times smaller from human cells due to absence of organelles and simpler structure. Eukaryotic cells have a size of 10-100um, while prokaryotic cells are of 1-10um.
• Bacterial cells are unicellular, so they are complete as a single cell. While human cell (eukaryotic cell) are part of  multicellular organisms which are developed after a long process of evolution.
• Bacterial cells don't have a true membrane bound DNA inside the nucleus, as human cells have. DNA is the basic component to store the genetic material.
• Usually bacterial cells have single circular chromosome while human cells have multiple linear chromosomes.
• Bacterial cells have cell wall made up of mucopeptide or peptidoglycan, while human cells don't have cell wall. Don't get confused with the fact that some eukaryotic cells have cell wall, such as plant cell. Even when a eukaryotic cell has a cell wall, it is made up of cellulose.
• Bacterial cells have higher metabolic rate, a higher growth rate compared to human cells.
• Bacterial cells have shorter generation time compared to human cells.