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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 ...
Amoeba is a genus of single-celled amoeboids in the family Amoebidae. [2] The type species of the genus is Amoeba proteus , a common freshwater organism, widely studied in classrooms and laboratories.
Amoebozoa vary greatly in size. Some are only 10–20 μm in diameter, while others are among the largest protozoa. The well-known species Amoeba proteus, which may reach 800 μm in length, is often studied in schools and laboratories as a representative cell or model organism, partly because of its convenient size.
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.
A typical example of a ciliated microorganism is the Paramecium, a one-celled, ciliated protozoan covered by thousands of cilia. The cilia beating together allow the Paramecium to propel through the water at speeds of 500 micrometers per second. [48] Flagellate, ciliates and amoeba
The taxon 'Protozoa' fails to meet these standards, so grouping protozoa with animals, and treating them as closely related, became no longer justifiable. The term continues to be used in a loose way to describe single-celled protists (that is, eukaryotes that are not animals, plants , or fungi ) that feed by heterotrophy . [ 9 ]
The ectoplasm consists of a gelatinous semisolid called plasma gel whereas the endoplasm is made up of a less viscous fluid called plasma sol. The ectoplasm owes its highly viscous state, in part, to the cross-linking actomyosin complex. Locomotion of an amoeba is thought to occur due to the sol-gel conversion of the protoplasm within its cell.
Free-living amoebae (or "FLA") [1] are a group of protozoa that are important causes of infectious disease in humans and animals. Naegleria fowleri is often included in the group "free-living amoebae", [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and this species causes a usually fatal condition traditionally called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).