Hi, today we are going to discuss protozoa Amoeba and characteristics of Amoeba. Amoeba show irregularities in its shape and they are unicellular organisms. They generally live in water bodies like ponds, lakes, rivers and some of them live inside various animals.
Some Amoeba species live in human beings and cause various illnesses in them like amoebiasis and other illnesses. They may enter the human body through contaminated foods and water and serious illness in humans and most of the diseases are digestion related.
Table of Contents
General Characteristics of Amoeba:
Amoeba is a member of protozoa so we will discuss all the general characteristics of Amoeba and will try to find the similarities of characters of Amoeba with characteristics of protozoa.
Amoeba Move by Pseudopodia:
Amoeba creates a protoplasmic projection towards its direction of movement which is like a leg but it is not a true leg so it is known as pseudopodia. The protoplasm pushes the plasma membrane to produce temporary blunt fingers like projection pseudopodia and the Amoeba go towards the direction of pseudopodia.
After that the pseudopodia goes inward the protoplasm and the pseudopodia vanish then a new pseudopodia is formed in the direction of its movement.
Amoeba Change Its Shape Very Quickly:
If you notice carefully then you will find that Amoeba has no definite shape, its shape changes continuously because the protoplasm flows like liquid in Amoeba and it is projected in various directions for making pseudopodia.
It is more clear when multiple pseudopodia develop in an Amoeba for an instant of time then all the pseudopodia in different directions give it an irregular shape.
Structure of Amoeba:
Morphological structure of Amoeba is very simple because Amoeba is an unicellular organism. So if we talk about its morphology then it has three major differentiated portion outer protecting plasma membranes which surround the semi-solid protoplasm and nucleus which controls all activities of the Amoeba.
Movement, metabolic activities and everything controlled by the nucleus because they are unicellular and they have no advanced organs for controlling all functions of their single cells like an animal body and their nucleus act as a brain for the whole Amoeba cell.
Different Phases in Cytoplasm:
Cytoplasm in Amoeba show two clear layer outer ectoplasm and inner endoplasm which differ in appearance for their differences in density.
Double Layered Plasma Membrane in Amoeba:
Plasma membrane is the main barrier for Amoeba to protect them against different types of external enemies which is made of double layer lipid and protein molecules.
Different Cell Organelles in Amoeba:
Major cell organelles present in Amoeba are mitochondria for energy, contractile vacuole for osmoregulation, fat globules and Golgi apparatus.
Phagocytosis and Pinocytosis in Amoeba:
Amoeba is a unicellular organism so they do not have special organs for ingestion. Everything needs to take inward Amoeba to do it by the process of phagocytosis or Pinocytosis.
Reproduction in Amoeba:
Like other members of protozoa Amoeba can easily divide through the process of binary fission which make an old Amoeba cell into two new Amoeba cells.
Amoeba are Immortal:
In general their lifespan is 2 days but after that they do not die they divide into two by binary fission. So the two new Amoeba cells formed from the single parent Amoeba cell are the part of the old Amoeba cell so they can be termed as immortal.
Amoeba Form Cyst During Unfavourable Conditions:
When the condition is not in favour Amoeba make protection tough layers around them and convert into inactive cyst stage when the condition becomes in favour they turn into active trophozoite stage.
Position of Amoeba:
Amoeba are unicellular eukaryotic organisms and they have general characteristics like kingdom protozoa so they are placed under a special group kingdom protozoa.
Reference: Characteristics of Amoeba
Read More: Causes and Symptoms of Amoebiasis
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