Abstract
Vacuoles have pivotal roles in intracellular digestion, pH and ion homeostasis, and metabolite storage. Although vacuoles can be synthesized de novo (Hoh et al. 1995, Catlett and Weisman 2000), they are inherited from mother cells to daughter cells during cell division. This vacuolar inheritance would enable cells to function properly right after mitosis. Yeast vacuoles are inherited using class V myosin and actin. In unicellular red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae, which lacks conventional actin and myosin, vacuoles are inherited by binding to mitochondria. In this review, I summarize our current knowledge in mechanisms for vacuole inheritance and discuss future perspectives.
