Q.How does cytokinesis in plant cells differ from that in animal cells?

Cytokinesis is carried out very differently in the two cell types, largely because of whether a rigid cell wall is present.

• In animal cells, division happens by a pinching-in of the cell surface: a furrow appears in the plasma membrane, usually around the middle of the cell, and steadily deepens from the outside until it cuts all the way through, separating the cytoplasm into two daughter cells.
• In plant cells, this pinching approach is not possible, because a rigid, inextensible cell wall surrounds the cell and cannot simply be squeezed inward. …

Cytokinesis is the division of the cytoplasm that follows karyokinesis, and its mechanism differs between the two kinds of cell largely because of the presence or absence of a rigid cell wall.

• In animal cells, which lack a rigid wall, division is achieved by a pinching-in of the cell surface. A furrow (an indentation) appears in the plasma membrane, usually around the middle of the cell, and this furrow steadily deepens, cutting inward from the outside, until it reaches the centre and the two sides meet. When they join, the cytoplasm is separated into two, giving two distinct daughter cells. …

Step 1 — Identify the structural difference between the two cell types that constrains how cytokinesis can happen: animal cells have no rigid wall; plant cells do.

Step 2 — Animal cells: since only the flexible plasma membrane bounds the cell, cytokinesis proceeds by an inward-pinching furrow that deepens from the outside until it cuts the cell in two. …