What do vacuoles do?

Vacuoles help plants maintain structure Vacuoles also play an important role in plant structure. Plants use cell walls to provide support and surround cells. The size of that cell may still increase or decrease depending on how much water is present. Plant cells do not shrink because of changes in the amount of cytoplasm. read more

In animal cells, vacuoles perform mostly subordinate roles, assisting in larger processes of exocytosis and endocytosis. Animal vacuoles are smaller than their plant counterparts but also usually greater in number. There are also animal cells that do not have any vacuoles. Exocytosis is the extrusion process of proteins and lipids from the cell. read more

Vacuoles vary in function between organisms and even within the same cell, but the most frequent use is the storage of water or nutrients. A vacuole is really a general-purpose, empty membrane organelle that is filled with whatever the cell needs to keep separate from the rest of the cytoplasm. read more

Plant cells do not shrink because of changes in the amount of cytoplasm. Most of a plant cell's volume depends on the material in vacuoles. Those vacuoles gain and lose water depending on how much water is available to the plant. A drooping plant has lost much of its water and the vacuoles are shrinking. read more