An amoeba is a unicellular animal, which doesn’t have a stomach for digestion of food. How does food storage and digestion take place in an amoeba?
1 Answer
Through food or gastric vacuoles and enzymatic digestion.
Explanation:
An amoeba digests food by surrounding it with temporary extensions called pseudopodia; these meet across the food particle to form a food or gastric vacuole with the cell membrane and a small part of cytoplasm.
The vacuole is pushed deeper into the amoeba by cytoplasmic movements where it fuses with lysosomes - organelles containing digestive enzymes like amylase and proteinase which digest carbohydrates and proteins. Fats are not digested by amoebae.
The digested food is absorbed by the surrounding cytoplasm through diffusion. In the process, the vacuole becomes progressively smaller.
The absorbed nutrients are circulated to all parts of the amoeba through cytoplasmic movements.
The residual waste matter is excreted through a temporary opening at the nearest point.
