Functions of Vacuoles

What is a Vacuole

Vacuoles :

Vacuoles are storage sacs for solid or liquid contents. Vacuoles are small sized in animal cells while plant cells have very large vacuoles. The central vacuole of some plant cells may occupy 50-90% of the cell volume.

Functions :

Vacuoles perform following functions :

1. They ar storage sacs of the cell. The stored matieral may be solid or liquid food or toxic metabolic by-products or end products of cells.
2. In some inicellular organisms, specialized vacuoles maintain water balance of the body (osmoregulation).
3. In plants, they provide turgidity and rigidity to the cells.