Question

Water soluble pigments found in plant cell vacuoles are
a. Xanthophylls
b. Chlorophylls
c. Carotenoids
d. Anthocyanins

Answer 1

Vacuoles is the membrane bound space found in the cytoplasm. It contains water, sap and excretory products. These are also called sap vacuoles. Vacuoles are present in the plants, fungal cells, protists, animal and bacterial cells.

Complete answer:
In plant cells, the vacuoles can occupy upto 90% volume of the plant cell. They are bounded by a single, semipermeable membrane called tonoplast. This membrane facilitates the transport of a number of ions and other materials against concentration gradients into the vacuole.

There are many types of vacuoles:
- Contractile vacuoles: In amoeba, it helps in excretion.
- Food vacuoles: In protists, food vacuoles are formed by engulfing the food particles.
- Gas vacuoles (pseudo vacuoles): These vacuoles are membraneless found in prokaryotes to provide buoyancy.

Option D: Anthocyanins are the water soluble pigments present in the plant cell vacuoles. These vacuoles appear in different colours like red, blue or purple. Anthocyanins are extracted from edible plants for various purposes.

Option A: Xanthophylls are the yellow pigments found in the leaves.

Option B: Chlorophylls are the green coloured pigments found in the plants, green algae and cyanobacteria. These pigments are used in photosynthesis.

Option C: Carotenoids are the plant pigments responsible for red, yellow and orange colour in many fruits and vegetables.

Hence, the correct answer is option (D).

Note: The green coloured plastids are chloroplasts, which contain chlorophyll whereas the other coloured plastids known as chromoplasts which contain pigments like carotene and xanthophyll. Autophagic vacuoles are formed by the union of many lysosomes around dead or old organelles which surround them with vacuolar membrane and digest them by autolysis.