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Clockwise from top right: Amoeba proteus, Actinophrys sol, Acanthamoeba sp., Nuclearia thermophila., Euglypha acanthophora, neutrophil ingesting bacteria. An amoeba (/ ə ˈ m iː b ə /; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; pl.: amoebas (less commonly, amebas) or amoebae (amebae) / ə ˈ m iː b i /), [1] often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability ...
Many unicellular protists, particularly protozoans, are motile and can generate movement using flagella, cilia or pseudopods. Cells which use flagella for movement are usually referred to as flagellates, cells which use cilia are usually referred to as ciliates, and cells which use pseudopods are usually referred to as amoeba or amoeboids.
Cilia occur in all members of the group (although the peculiar Suctoria only have them for part of their life cycle) and are variously used in swimming, crawling, attachment, feeding, and sensation. Ciliates are an important group of protists , common almost anywhere there is water—in lakes, ponds, oceans, rivers, and soils, including anoxic ...
Eukaryotic flagella—those of animal, plant, and protist cells—are complex cellular projections that lash back and forth. Eukaryotic flagella are classed along with eukaryotic motile cilia as undulipodia [ 17 ] to emphasize their distinctive wavy appendage role in cellular function or motility .
Protists have an accentuated tendency to include endosymbionts in their cells, and these have produced new physiological opportunities. Some associations are more permanent, such as Paramecium bursaria and its endosymbiont Chlorella; others more transient. Many protists contain captured chloroplasts, chloroplast-mitochondrial complexes, and ...
An Amoeba obtains its food by phagocytosis, engulfing smaller organisms and particles of organic matter, or by pinocytosis, taking in dissolved nutrients through vesicles formed within the cell membrane. [14] Food enveloped by the Amoeba is stored in digestive organelles called food vacuoles. Amoeba, like other unicellular eukaryotic organisms ...
Many different prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells can swim and many of these have either flagella or cilia for that purpose. These dedicated structures are not necessary for swimming, though, as there are amoeba and other eukaryotic cells which lack flagella and cilia but can still swim, although it is slower than crawling or gliding.
Amoeba proteus is a large species of amoeba closely related to another genus of giant amoebae, Chaos. As such, the species is sometimes given the alternative scientific name Chaos diffluens. [1] [2] Amoeba proteus in locomotion. This protozoan uses extensions called pseudopodia to move and to eat smaller unicellular organisms.