Difference Between Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells

The cell is the basic unit of organization or structures of all living matter. Cell is the smallest portion of an organism which exhibits range of properties of living beings like reproduction, mutation, metabolism and sensitivity. Cell is defined as “a unit of biological activity delimited by a semi permeable membrane and capable of self reproduction in a medium free of other living systems.”

The body of all living organisms (bacteria, blue green algae, plants and animals) except viruses has cellular organization and may contain one or many cells. The organisms with only one cell in their body are called unicellular organism (e.g., bacteria, blue green algae, some algae, protozoa etc). The organisms having many cells in their body are called multicellular organisms (plants and animals). 
Read more: Unicellular vs Multicellular Organism

There are two main classes of cells, namely:

(A) Prokaryotic cell

(B) Eukaryotic cell

The terms prokaryotic and eukaryotic were suggested by Hans Ris in the 1960’s. The prokaryotes consists of the bacteria and blue green algae and were first to arise in biological evolution (i.e., about 3 x 10 ⁹ years old). The eukaryotic cells are found in all multicellular animals, plants and fungi. Eukaryotes have arisen probably a billion year after the prokaryotes and much larger and complex. They show a wide range of diversity and differentiation.

Difference Between: 

Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cell

No	Features	Prokaryotic Cell Prokaryotic Cell	Eukaryotic cell Eukaryotic cell
1	Occurrence	Prokaryotic cells are the characteristics of bacteria and blue green algae (cyanobacteria)	These are cells are  found in all, animals and plants, except blue green algae and bacteria.
2	Size	Mostly 1-10 μm	Mostly 10-100 μm
3	Multicellular forms	Rare	Common, with extensive tissue formation
4	Cell wall	Present in most but not in all cells. In Bacteria, cell wall is made up of murein, poly saccharides, lipids and proteins. Read more	The animal cells lack cell wall, but plants cell wall is made up of cellulose and chitinous cell wall is present in fungi. Read more
5	Plasma membrane	Present	Present
6	Nucleus	Absent. Nucleiod region is present where genetic material resides.	Present
7	Nuclear Membranes	Absent	Present
8	Chromatin with histone	Absent	Present
9	Number of chromosomes	Each cell has only one chromosome.	Number of chromosomes per cell depends upon the type of organism.
10	Chromosome	The chromosome is circular ring lacking a centromere.	Each chromosome is linear having a centromere with two kinetochores meant for attachment to the spindle  fibres during cell division.
11	Genetic material	Circular or linear, double stranded DNA: only exons are present	Linear double stranded DNA: genes frequently interrupted by intron sequences, especially in higher eukaryotes (called as split genes).
12	Nucleoli and Mitotic  apparatus	Absent	Present
13	Nucleolus	Absent	Present (for the synthesis and organisation of ribosomes)
14	Plasmids	Commonly present	Rare
15	Mesosomes	Mesosomes perform the function of golgibodies and mitochondria, and also help in the separation of chromosomes during cell division.	Absent
16	Cell organelles
	Mitochondria	Absent	Present
	Endoplasmic Reticum	Absent	Present
	Vacuoles	Absent	Present
	Lysosomes	Absent	Present
	Chloroplast	Absent	Present (Only in plants)
	Centrioles	Absent	Present (Absent in higher plants)
	Ribosomes	Only 70S type of ribosomes are present which lie free in cytoplasm, or are engaged in protein synthesis.	The cytoplasm has 80S type of ribosomes; and plastid and mitochondria have 70 S type of ribosomes
	Microtubules	Absent	Present
	Flagellae	Simple structure composed of the protein Flagellin. Read more	Complex 9+2 structure of tubulin and other protein. Read more
17	Respiration	Many strict anaerobes	All aerobic, but some facultative anaerobes by secondary modifications.
18	Photosynthetic Enzymes	Bound to plasma membrane as composite chromatophores	Enzymes packed in plastids bound by membrane
19	Metabolic Patterns	Great Variations	All share cytochrome electron transport chains, Krebs cycle oxidation, Embden-Meyerhof glucose metabolism or glycolysis.
20	Sexual System	Rare: If present one way (and usually forming partial diploids or merozygotes); transfer of DNA from donor to recipient cell occurs (conjugation). Gene transfer takes place by transformation and transduction also.	Both sexes involved in sexual participation and entire genomes transferred; alternation of haploid and diploid generations is also evident.
21	Cyclosis	There are no streaming movements of cytoplasm	Cytoplasm shows streaming movements
22	Protein Synthesis	Transcription and translation take place in cytoplasm.	Transcription occurs in nucleus and translation takes place in cytoplasm.
23	Duration of cell cycle	Cell cycle is short, takes 20-60 minutes to complete.	Cell cycle is long, takes 12-24 hours to complete.