Question

How does the way animal cells use their vacuoles compare to the way plant cells use theirs

Answer 1

@graylon Plants usually just use it to store water to maintain turger pressure and the like. Animals use them for metabolic purposes.

Answer 2

Plant cells have a central vacuole where digestion occurs, they don't have lysosomes, and to store water. It keeps a plant turgid. Other vacuoles are used for food transport like the plastids in tubers. For example, a potato stores it's starch in these food vacuoles.

Single celled organisms, like a protista, have contractile vacuoles where they pump water outside to keep from lysing or bursting. It's like a surge pump. Animal cells also use vacuoles for transportation of food within the cell and some digestion can occur within them as well. It's important to know that these vacuoles within multicelluar organisms are linked to endocytosis and exocytosis, where the cell consumes by deforming it's cell membrane. It's similar to an amoeba eating.