What Good is a Vacuole?
• A vacuole acts like a rubbish bin, it contains waste products that might damage the cell. It’s a proactive little garbage collector in that it isolates and absorbs potentially harmful material, and it also helps to eject unwanted substances from the cell. • It also helps to maintain acidic pH levels as well as the cell’s hydrostatic pressure. • Vacuoles are also repositories of useful substances such as proteins and carbohydrates. • Vacuoles also help to destroy invading bacteria and mis-folded proteins that can bring about cell destruction.
