Defines Plant Cell Vacuoles Functions Plant vacuoles have multiple functions. They may contain hydrolytic enzymes and function as a digestive organelle similar to lysosomes in animal cells. They may contain secondary metabolic products such as alkaloids, glycosides and glutathione conjugates, organic acids, and anthocyanidins. They may also store proteins in seed and vegetative tissues.
TIPs are integral membrane proteins in the tonoplast.
But biochemical markers specific for tonoplast of functionally distinct vacuoles are poorly defined. Organelles labeled with these antibodies were also labeled with anti-pyrophosphatase antibodies, demonstrating that regardless of their size, they had the expected characteristics of vacuoles. In contrast, those marked by g-TIP alone have characteristics of lytic vacuoles. In root tips, relatively undifferentiated cells that contain vacuoles labeled separately for each of the three TIPs have been identified. We proposed that pollination in lily is a case of cell adhesion and cell movement, but experimental evidence for the adhesion event is lacking.