We explain what an amoeba is and some characteristics of this genus of protists. Also, your observations and approximate size.
What is an amoeba?
It is known as amoebas, amoebas or amoebas to a genus of unicellular protists, lacking a cell wall, which are characterized by their irregular shape and their movements based on pseudopodia, that is, on tentacular extensions of its cytoplasm that allow it to engulf (engulf) food and incorporate them through your cellular membrane.
Amoebas areprotozoa that inhabit the earth and the Water, where they feed on decomposing matter or organisms smaller, although some species have developed a parasitic life and require to invade the internal systems of multicellular organisms, including the human being.
They are eukaryotic organisms, of various sizes, with a cell nucleus and a contractile vacuole and various minor vacuoles for digestive purposes. The simplicity of its structure and the versatility of their habits make amoebas the unicellular beings suitable for laboratory rearing and experimentation controlled. Initially they were cataloged within the kingdom of animals, but in the new taxonomies of the living beings They were assigned their own taxonomic group (TOmoebozoa) and were assigned to the kingdom of the protists.
Its reproduction is of type asexual, for Binary fission Y mitosis, and its diet is of the heterotrophic type, characterized by intracellular digestion. His metabolism It depends on the oxygen (cellular respiration) it takes in through its membrane of the environment, in the same way that it expels carbon dioxide and other undigested waste.
Amoebas were first observed in 1757, by the German naturalist August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof. From its first observations of the changing form of the organism, the first species observed as Amoebto proteus, alluding to the name of the Greek god Proteus, capable of changing shape at will.
The usual size of amoebae is around 700/800 micrometers (μm), although larger species such as thePolychaos dubium
(parasite of the human being) reaches to measure a millimeter, being visible to the naked eye.
References:
- Description of the genus Amoeba. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- What is an amoeba? In Live Science.
- Amoeba seen by microscope with different lighting systems. In a YouTube video.