The protist cell vacuoles are known to specifically store water. There is special terminology for the vacuoles of protists, i.e., contractile vacuoles. These were the first vacuoles of all kinds to be observed by scientists.
The contractile vacuoles help in the regulation of the amount of water in a protist cell. Hence, protist vacuoles are identified as “osmoregulators”. Since the protists living in water tend to intake excessive amounts of water, their cellular structure is prone to rupture and bursting.
In such a scenario, vacuoles come to the rescue and prevent the cell from bursting by contraction and expulsion of excess water from the cell. There can be one too many contractile vacuoles per protist cell. Also, the nature of vacuole motility varies from protist genera to genera.
Example:
- Euglena: Vacuole=stationary inside the cell.
- Amoeba: Vacuole=moves inside the cell.
Apart from this, in some protists, vacuoles serve the basic roles of digesting food and storing waste produced by the cell
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