Amoeba proteus

Amoeba proteus

This protozoan uses extensions called pseudopodia to move and to eat smaller unicellular organisms. Food is enveloped inside the cell's cytoplasm in a food vacuole, where ingested matter is slowly broken down by enzymes. ''Amoeba proteus'' inhabits freshwater environments and feeds on protozoans, algae, rotifers, and even other smaller amoebae.
Amoeba proteus Amoeba proteus is a protozoan that uses extensions called pseudopodia ("false feet") to move and eat smaller organisms. Food gets enveloped inside the cell's cytoplasm, where it is slowly broken down by enzymes. It inhabits freshwater environments. The projections on the amoeba are pseudopodia. You can also see the nucleus of the amoeba (dark blue blob). *Whole mount slide Amoeba,Amoeba proteus,Geotagged,Sarcodina,United States,Winter,protist,protista,pseudopodia

Appearance

''A. proteus'' is colourless, but may have coloured inclusions derived from its food. ''A. proteus'' possesses a thick-walled nucleus containing granular chromatin, and is therefore a eukaryote. Its membrane includes a phospholipid bilayer similar to other eukaryotic organisms.

Reproduction

Although ''Amoeba proteus'' has most of the key proteins associated with sexual processes ) no evidence of meiosis or sexual activity has been reported.

Evolution

The first description of this amoeba is probably that of August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof who, in 1755, published drawings of an amoeboid protozoan he called the "little Proteus". Subsequently, various authors assigned Rösel's organism and other amoeboid protozoa various names: Carl Linnaeus termed Rösel's organism ''Chaos protheus'' in 1758. Otto Friedrich Müller referred to it as ''Proteus diffluens'' in 1786. In 1878, Joseph Leidy proposed the current name ''Amoeba proteus'' to describe Rösel's ''Proteus'', ''Proteus diffluens'', and another described amoeba ''Amoeba princeps''.

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Taxonomy
KingdomProtozoa
DivisionAmoebozoa
ClassTubulinea
OrderEuamoebida
FamilyAmoebidae
GenusAmoeba
SpeciesA. proteus
Photographed in
United States of America