Question

A plant cell and an animal cell are of the same size.

1. Which cell will have a larger vacuole? Give reasons.
2. What assumptions are you making to answer the question above?

Answer 1

1. The vacuole in the plant cell will be bigger. In order to store cell sap and preserve the turgidity and shape of the cell, a mature plant cell often includes a single, sizable central vacuole that may take up the majority of the cell volume. Animal cells, on the other hand, only have tiny, temporary vacuoles or none at all.
2. It is assumed that the animal cell is an ordinary, normal animal cell and that the plant cell is a typical mature plant cell (and not a meristematic cell, since meristematic cells typically lack vacuoles). Additionally, we assume that both are healthy, equal-sized cells.