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CONTRACTILE VACUOLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 40 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CONTRACTILE VACUOLE , in See also:

biology, a spherical space filled with liquid, which at intervals discharges into the See also:medium; it is found in all fresh-See also:water See also:groups of See also:Protozoa, and some marine forms, also in the naked aquatic reproductive cells of See also:Algae and See also:Fungi. It is absent in states with a distinct See also:cell-See also:wall to resist excessive turgescence, such as would See also:lead to the rupture of a naked cell, and we conclude that its See also:chief See also:function is to prevent such turgescence in unprotected naked cells. It fulfils also See also:respiratory and renal functions, and is comparable, physiologically, to the contractile vesicle or See also:bladder of Rotifers and Turbellarians. In many See also:species it is See also:part of a complex of canals or spaces in the See also:protoplasm. See M. Hartog, See also:British Association Reports, and Degen, Botanische Zeitung, vol. lxiii. See also:Abt. I (1905) (see also PROTOZOA; PROTOPLASM).

End of Article: CONTRACTILE VACUOLE

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