Vacuole in the context of "Endomembrane system"

The cytoplasm is all the material within a eukaryotic or prokaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, including the organelles and excluding the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. The material inside the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell and contained within the nuclear membrane is termed the nucleoplasm. The main components of the cytoplasm are the cytosol (a gel-like substance), the cell's internal sub-structures, and various cytoplasmic inclusions. The cytoplasm is about 80% water and is usually colorless.

The cytosol or cytoplasmic matrix or groundplasm, remains after the exclusion of the cell organelles and cytoplasmic inclusions. Microscopically it is a highly complex, polyphasic system in which all resolvable cytoplasmic elements are suspended, including the larger organelles such as the ribosomes, mitochondria, plant plastids, lipid droplets, and vacuoles.

Anthocyanins (from Ancient Greek ἄνθος (ánthos) 'flower' and κυάνεος/κυανοῦς (kuáneos/kuanoûs) 'dark blue'), also called anthocyans, are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, pink, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart named a chemical compound that gives flowers a blue color, Anthokyan, in his treatise "Die Farben der Blüthen" (English: The Colors of Flowers). Food plants rich in anthocyanins include the blueberry, raspberry, black rice, and black soybean, among many others that are red, pink, blue, purple, or black. Some of the colors of autumn leaves are derived from anthocyanins.

Anthocyanins belong to a parent class of molecules called flavonoids synthesized via the phenylpropanoid pathway. They can occur in all tissues of higher plants, including leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and fruits. Anthocyanins are derived from anthocyanidins by adding sugars. They are odorless and moderately astringent.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also known as prion diseases, are a group of progressive, incurable, and invariably fatal conditions that are associated with the degeneration of the nervous system in many animals, including humans, cattle, and sheep. Strong evidence supports the once unorthodox hypothesis that prion diseases are transmitted by abnormally shaped protein molecules known as prions. Prions consist of a protein called the prion protein (PrP). Misshapen PrP (often referred to as PrP) conveys its abnormal structure to naive PrP molecules by a crystallization-like seeding process. Because the abnormal proteins stick to each other, and because PrP is continuously produced by cells, PrP accumulates in the brain, harming neurons and eventually causing clinical disease.

Prion diseases are marked by mental and physical deterioration that worsens over time. A defining pathologic characteristic of prion diseases is the appearance of small vacuoles in various parts of the central nervous system that create a sponge-like appearance when brain tissue obtained at autopsy is examined under a microscope. Other changes in affected regions include the buildup of PrP, gliosis, and the loss of neurons.

Plant cells are the cells present in green plants, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Their distinctive features include primary cell walls containing cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectin, the presence of plastids with the capability to perform photosynthesis and store starch, a large vacuole that regulates turgor pressure, the absence of flagella or centrioles, except in the gametes, and a unique method of cell division involving the formation of a cell plate or phragmoplast that separates the new daughter cells.

Suctoria are ciliates that become sessile in their developed stage and then lose their redundant cilia. They feed by extracellular digestion. They were originally thought to feed by suction – hence their name. In fact, they use specialized microtubules to ensnare and manipulate their prey. They live in both freshwater and marine environments, including some that live on the surface of aquatic animals, and typically feed on other ciliates. Instead of a single cytostome, each cell feeds by means of several specialized tentacles. These are supported by microtubules and phyllae, and have toxic extrusomes called haptocysts at the tip, which they attach to prey. They then suck the prey's cytoplasm directly into a food vacuole inside the cell, where they digest and absorb its contents. Most suctoria are around 15–30 μm in size, with a non-contractile stalk and often a lorica or shell.

Suctoria reproduce primarily by budding, producing swarmers that lack both tentacles and stalks but have cilia. They may also reproduce through conjugation, which is peculiar in involving cells of different size and often involves total fusion. The way buds form is the primary distinction between different orders of suctoria. Among the Exogenida, including common genera like Podophrya and Sphaerophrya, they appear directly on the cell surface. Among the Endogenida, for instance Tokophrya and Acineta, they form in an internal pouch and escape through an opening—and among the Evaginogenida, they form in a pouch that inverts before they are released.

The notochord is an elastic, rod-like structure found in chordates. In vertebrates the notochord is an embryonic structure that disintegrates, as the vertebrae develop, to become the nucleus pulposus in the intervertebral discs of the vertebral column.In non-vertebrate chordates, the notochord persists during development.

The notochord is derived from the embryonic mesoderm and consists of an inner core of vacuolated cells filled with glycoproteins, covered by two helical collagen-elastin sheaths. It lies longitudinally along the rostral-caudal (head to tail) axis of the body, dorsal to the gut tube, and ventral to the dorsal nerve cord. Some chordate invertebrates, such as tunicates, develop a notochord during the larval stage but lose it through subsequent stages into adulthood.

Cyanidiophyceae is a class of unicellular red algae within subdivision Cyanidiophytina, and contain a single plastid, one to three mitochondria, a nucleus, a vacuole, and floridean starch. Pyrenoids are absent. Most are extremophiles inhabiting acid hot springs with a pH between 0,2 and 4 and temperatures up to 56 °C. They originated in extreme environments with high temperatures and low pH, which allowed them to occupy ecological niches without any competition.

While still found in extreme environments, they have also adapted to live along streams, in fissures in rock walls and in soil, but usually prefer relatively high temperatures. They have never been found in basic freshwater or seawater habitats. The main photosynthetic pigment is C-phycocyanin. Except for Galdieria partita, which can reproduce sexually, reproduction is asexual by binary fission or formation of endospores. The group, consisting of a single order (Cyanidiales), split off from the other red algae more than a billion years ago. Three families, four genera, and nine species are known, but the total number of species is probably higher. They are primarily photoautotrophic, but heterotrophic and mixotrophic growth also occurs. After the first massive gene loss in the common ancestor of all red algae, where c. 25% of the genes were lost, a second gene loss occurred in the ancestor of Cyanidiophyceae, where an additional 18% of the genes were lost. Since then, some gene gains and minor gene losses have taken place independently in the Cyanidiaceae and Galdieriaceae, leading to genetic diversification between the two groups, with Galdieriaceae occupying more diverse and varied niches in extreme environments than Cyanidiaceae.

Amoeba proteus is a large species of amoeba closely related to another genus of giant amoebae, Chaos. As such, the species is sometimes given the alternative scientific name Chaos diffluens.

This protozoan uses extensions called pseudopodia to move and to eat smaller unicellular organisms. Food is enveloped inside the cell's cytoplasm in a food vacuole, where ingested matter is slowly broken down by enzymes. A. proteus inhabits freshwater environments and feeds on protozoans, algae, rotifers, and even other smaller amoebae. They are colorless, but they may have colored inclusions derived from their food.