The Cytoproct functions as the primary and only site where food vacuoles are expelled from the cell by fusing with the plasma membrane during exocytosis. Once the waste is expelled, the vacuole is reabsorbed through endocytosis by the Cytoproct to be recycled into the cell membrane for cell maintenance.
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Cytoproct
Image depicts four food vacuoles in different stages of digestion and an open cytoproct within a Tetrahymena cell. Credited to Professor Richard Allen and his Image Collection, permission to use image collection granted by Hawaii University.
Image depicts florescence imagining of the cytoproct of Tetrahymena. Credited to Daniel P. Romero, U.MN for YFP-construct and transformants.