Question

What happens to the amoebas cytoplasm as it moves?

Answer 1

Amoebae use pseudopodia (meaning “false feet”) to move. This is basically the same way phagocytes (a type of white blood cell) engulf an invading microorganism when we fight an illness. In the case of an amoeba moving, it's cytoplasm flows forward to form a pseudopodium, then it evens back out. In order to eat, it will form two pseudopodia and wrap those around to meet each other, enclosing its food, then the cytoplasm evens out again.

At a molecular level, the amoeba uses ATP-driven precursors to drive the frowth of linear molecules called actin, that attach to proteins in the cell membrane. The growth of many of these cytoskeletal molecules in a particular direction forms a ‘false foot’, or pseudopod. Other ATP-driven precursors can cause the linear molecules to break down, halting growth in a particular direction. All of this assembly and disassembly happens at the rate of chemical reactions, and can happen quite rapidly as surface cell proteins detect food and relay the molecular information to those molecules responsible for starting and stopping the actin molecules formation.

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