the.com/cell wall
the reason plants stand up straight and don't need a skeleton to do it.
means a rigid layer outside the cell membrane, built mostly of cellulose, that gives plant, fungal, and bacterial cells shape, protection, and structural backbone.
from first seen by robert hooke in 1665 peering at cork under a microscope, he called the empty boxes he saw cellulae after monastery cells, not realizing he was mostly looking at the walls left behind.
animal cellsnever have one, hence why you're squishy
turgor pressurewall resists water so cells don't burst
antibiotics targetpenicillin kills bacteria by wrecking wall synthesis
for instance
plant cellulose walls — give celery its crunch and trees their height
fungal chitin walls — same molecule found in insect exoskeletons