Vacuoles

Vacuoles are essentially enclosed compartments which are filled with water
containing inorganic and organic molecules including enzymes in solution,
though in certain cases they may contain solids which have been engulfed.
Discovery
• Contractile vacuoles ("stars") were first observed by Spallanzani (1776)
in protozoa, although mistaken for respiratory organs. 
• Dujardin (1841) named these "stars" as vacuoles.
• In 1842, Schleiden applied the term for plant cells, to distinguish the
structure with cell sap from the rest of the protoplasm.
• In 1885, de Vries named the vacuole membrane as tonoplast.
Structure

• The structure of vacuoles is fairly simple. There is a membrane called

tonoplast that surrounds a mass of fluid (nutrients or waste products).
• The tonoplast is the cytoplasmic membrane surrounding a vacuole,
separating the vacuolar contents from the cell's cytoplasm.
• Vacuoles are formed by the fusion of multiple membrane vesicles and are
effectively just larger forms of these.
 • They are closely related to objects called vesicles that are found
throughout the cell.
• When a plant cell has stopped growing, there is usually one very large
vacuole. Sometimes that vacuole can take up more than half of the cell's
volume.
• Shape : The organelle has no basic shape or size; its structure varies
according to the requirements of the cell.
Vacuoles are also called storage bubbles found in cells.
They are found in both animal and plant cells but are much larger in plant cells.
Most mature plant cells have one large vacuole that typically occupies more
than 30% of the cell's volume, and that can occupy as much as 80% of the
volume for certain cell types and conditions. Vacuoles might store food or any
variety of nutrients a cell might need to survive. Plants may also use vacuoles to
store water. Those tiny water bags help to support the plant. They can even store
waste products so the rest of the cell is protected from contamination.
Eventually, those waste products would be sent out of the cell. Those waste
products are slowly broken into small pieces that cannot hurt the cell. Vacuoles
hold onto things that the cell might need, just like a backpack.
Transport of protons from the cytosol to the vacuole stabilizes cytoplasmic pH,
while making the vacuolar interior more acidic creating a proton motive
force which the cell can use to transport nutrients into or out of the vacuole.
This low pH of the vacuole also allows degradative enzymes to act. Although
single large vacuoles are most common, the size and number of vacuoles may
vary in different tissues and stages of development.
FUNCTIONS OF VACUOLES
• Aside from storage, the main role of the central vacuole is to
maintain turgor pressure against the cell wall.
• Proteins found in the tonoplast (aquaporins) control the flow of water into
and out of the vacuole through active transport,
pumping potassium (K+) ions into and out of the vacuolar interior.
• Turgor pressure exerted by vacuoles is also required for cellular
elongation as the cell wall is partially degraded by the action
of expansins, the less rigid wall is expanded by the pressure coming from
within the vacuole. Turgor pressure exerted by the vacuole is also
essential in supporting plants in an upright position. Another function of a
central vacuole is that it pushes all contents of the cell's cytoplasm against
the cellular membrane, and thus keeps the chloroplasts closer to light