Yes, your skin cells, your kidney cells, and your bone cells are fundamentally similar to the leaf cells and root cells of a carrot; the cells of a mold, mushroom, or yeast; and the single cell of microorganisms called protists that live in water and soil.
Here's a simplistic description of a eukaryotic cell: It's a membrane-bound sac containing smaller but distinctive structures, called organelles ("little organs"), suspended in a gel-like matrix called the cytoplasm.
As their name suggests, organelles are functional subunits of a cell, as organs are functional subunits of an organism. One of the largest and most prominent organelles, the nucleus, controls a cell's functioning, similar to the way the nervous system controls an organism's functioning.
The term eukaryote is derived from the Greek term karyos, meaning "nut" or "kernel," which early biologists used to refer to the nucleus. The figure shows the general structure of a eukaryotic cell.
Illustration by Kathryn Born, MAA cutaway view of a basic animal cell and its organelles.
The following table gives you an overview of the structures found within a eukaryotic cell.
| Organelle | Function |
| Nucleus | Controls the cell; houses the genetic material |
| Mitochondrion | Cell "powerhouse"; site of cellular respiration |
| Endoplasmic reticulum | Plays an important role in protein synthesis; participates in transporting cell products; involved in metabolizing (breaking down) fats as well as drugs |
| Ribosome | Binds amino acids together under the direction of mRNA to make protein |
| Golgi apparatus | Modifies proteins into functional form; "packages" cellular products in sacs called vesicles in which products can cross the cell membrane to exit the cell |
| Vacuoles | Membrane-bound spaces in the cytoplasm that aid in endo- and exocytosis |
| Lysosomes | Contain enzymes that break down harmful cell products and waste materials and actively transport them out of the cell |
The organisms called bacteria (singular, bacterium) are made up of prokaryotic cells. Prokaryotic cells are very different from and much simpler than eukaryotic cells in their basic structure and organization. This difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms is the great divide in biology. At the cellular level, differences among animals, plants, fungi, and protists are almost negligible compared with the differences between these groups on the one hand and prokaryotes (bacteria) on the other.
