Cell Growth and Differentiation

This lesson covers cell growth and differentiation in animals and plants as required by the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science specification (1SC0). You need to understand how organisms grow, why cells differentiate and the differences between growth and differentiation in animals and plants.

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How Do Organisms Grow?

Multicellular organisms grow by increasing the number of cells and the size of cells. Growth involves:

1. Cell division — mitosis produces new cells.
2. Cell elongation — cells increase in size (particularly important in plants).
3. Cell differentiation — cells become specialised for particular functions.

In animals, growth mainly involves an increase in cell number (through mitosis) followed by differentiation. In plants, growth also involves significant cell elongation, where cells absorb water into their vacuoles and stretch.

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What Is Cell Differentiation?

Differentiation is the process by which a cell changes to become specialised for a particular function. When a cell differentiates, it develops specific structures and features that allow it to carry out its role effectively.

Before differentiation, cells are unspecialised — they have the potential to become many different cell types.