Imagine that you have two blades of grass. One is from a normal plant, and the other is from a mutant plant that cannot produce vacuoles. How will the structures of these two blades of grass compare?

Question

Ingrid Parsons

Social Studies

6 July, 01:43

Imagine that you have two blades of grass. One is from a normal plant, and the other is from a mutant plant that cannot produce vacuoles. How will the structures of these two blades of grass compare?

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Answers (1)

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Amani Kidd · Answer 1

Answer: A plant cell would die without a vacuole.

Explanation:

Some of the most common and important functions of vacuoles are listed here (in animal cells vacuoles carry only some of these functions):

• The Isolation of materials that might be harmful or a threat to the cell.

• Storage of waste products / nutrients.

• Maintaining structure of the cell by storing water.

• Breaking down complex molecules

Therefore if a vacuole was absent in such a cell where it carries all these functions the cell would shrink as there would be nothing to maintain internal hydrostatic pressure or turgor within the cell.

Dangerous waste materials would just wonder around the cell, sooner or later ending up destroying some of the cell's organells. The cell would have no chance to repair that damage as it would not be able to break down any complex molecules and transform them into what is needed. Moreover, the cell would "starve" as it wouldn't be able to store all nutrients properly.