EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Contractile vacuoles are specialized in order to regulate the water content of cells. It is spherical in shape and collects excess fluid from the cell and empties it outside. It is pivotal in maintaining the cell’s osmotic pressure. Protists are unicellular eukaryotes that exist in aquatic and damp environments.

Detailed explanation-2: -Proteins found in the tonoplast (aquaporins) control the flow of water into and out of the vacuole through active transport, pumping potassium (K+) ions into and out of the vacuolar interior. Due to osmosis, water will diffuse into the vacuole, placing pressure on the cell wall.

Detailed explanation-3: -The contractile vacuole (CV) complex is an osmoregulatory organelle of free-living amoebae and protozoa, which controls the intracellular water balance by accumulating and expelling excess water out of the cell, allowing cells to survive under hypotonic stress as in pond water.

Detailed explanation-4: -The best-understood contractile vacuoles belong to the protists Paramecium, Amoeba, Dictyostelium and Trypanosoma, and to a lesser extent the green alga Chlamydomonas.