Describe the structure and functions of Lysosomes.

Explanation

Lysosomes were discovered by Christian de Duve (1953), these are known as suicidal bags. They are spherical bodies enclosed by a single unit membrane. They are found in eukaryotic cell. Lysosomes are small vacuoles formed when small pieces of golgi body are pinched off from its tubules.
They contain a variety of hydrolytic enzymes, that can digest material within the cell. The membrane around lysosome prevent these enzymes from digesting the cell itself.
Functions:
Intracellular digestion: They digest carbohydrates, proteins and lipids present in cytoplasm.
Autophagy: During adverse condition they digest their own cell organelles like mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum.
Autolysis: Lysosome causes self destruction of cell on insight of disease they destroy the cells.
Ageing: Lysosomes have autolytic enzymes that disrupts intracellular molecules.
Phagocytosis: Large cells or contents are engulfed and digested by macrophages, thus forming a phagosome in cytoplasm. These phago some fuse with lysosome for further digestion.
Exocytosis: Lysosomes release their enzymes outerside the cell to digest other cells.