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Which cell has changing shapes?
Smooth muscle
Ovum
Amoeba
Nerve cell
Amoeba
Amoeba is a unicellular organism that has no fixed shape. It constantly changes its shape by forming temporary projections called pseudopodia (false feet), which help it in locomotion and capturing food.
Amoeba is a unicellular organism that has no fixed shape. It constantly changes its shape by forming temporary projections called pseudopodia (false feet), which help it in locomotion and capturing food.
Think of Amoeba like a water balloon or a blob of dough that you can squeeze and push into different shapes with your hands without breaking its outer skin.
AMOEBA = Always Moving, Owning Every Body Area (changing shapes)
The shifting of Amoeba's shape is driven by the streaming movement of its cytoplasm (endoplasm and ectoplasm) and the regulated actin-myosin cytoskeleton dynamics, which push the cell membrane outward to form pseudopodia whenever the organism moves or engulfs food particles through phagocytosis.
Amoeba is a unicellular eukaryotic organism belonging to the kingdom Protista.
It has no definite cell wall, allowing the cell membrane to project outward into pseudopodia.
Pseudopodia ('false feet') serve a dual purpose: locomotion and engulfing food (phagocytosis).
In contrast, nerve cells are elongated for signal transmission, muscle cells are contractile, and red blood cells are biconcave disks.
Flexibility to capture food particles from any direction.
Ability to squeeze through narrow spaces and escape adverse conditions.
Used as a standard biological model organism for studying amoeboid movement, phagocytosis, and eukaryotic cellular dynamics.
| Feature | Smooth Muscle | Amoeba |
|---|---|---|
Cell Shape | Spindle-shaped / Elongated | Irregular / Constantly Changing |
Presence of Pseudopodia | Absent | Present |
Smooth muscle cells are spindle-shaped with tapered ends.
Nerve cells (neurons) are long and branched to transmit electrical impulses across distances.
An ovum (egg cell) is generally spherical or ovoid in shape.
C is correct тАФ Amoeba is a unicellular organism that constantly changes its shape using temporary projections called pseudopodia.
Always remember that while most human and plant cells have fixed, specialized shapes corresponding to their functions (e.g., neurons for conduction, RBCs for oxygen transport), certain protozoans like Amoeba and white blood cells (leukocytes) in humans can exhibit amoeboid movement by changing their shape.