Vacuole in plant cell

While plant vacuoles are easily identifiable because of the large amount of space they take up inside the cell, animal cells would not benefit from a large central vacuole.

Vacuole definition

This is especially true because animal cells do not have a cell wall to provide counter-pressure to the turgor pressure of a large vacuole, and the animal cells would eventually burst. Animal cells may have no vacuoles, or they may have several vacuoles, depending on the cell's function and needs.

Instead of operating as structural elements, vacuoles in animal cells are small and spend most of their time providing transportation into and out of the cell for various organic materials.

There are two kinds of transportation that the vacuoles provide: ‌exocytosis‌ and ‌endocytosis‌.

‌Exocytosis‌ is the method by which vacuoles move materials out of the cell. These materials are often unwanted materials such as waste, or molecules that are destined for other cells or the extracellular fluid.

During exocytosis, vacuoles prepare some molecules to release signals that

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