Think
of vacuoles as bowls within a cell. There
is a milky
liquid
inside made up of water, sugar, and other chemicals. The liquid might
feel like gel that you can put in your hair. This "hair gel" is
incredibly important to the life of a cell. The gel helps the
vacuole break down chemicals that get into the cell. They
also play a part in the growth of the cell, and are bigger in plant
cells than animal
cells.
Though the vacuoles in plants are bigger,
there are more
vacuoles in animal cells. In the plant cells, vacuoles play a very big
job. When the plant is watered, water collects in the vacuoles, causing
it to fill up. This makes it healthy, but when it is not watered the
vacuoles get smaller. If you have ever seen a plant wilt it means that
the vacuoles don,t have water.
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