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Amoeboid
motion
Amoeboid
movement occurs as an extension of the cytoplasm, called
a pseudopod (“false foot”), flows outward, deforms the cell
boundary, and is followed by the rest of the cell. Many
pseudopodia may be formed at the same time, and their actions
do not seem to be coordinated.
Although
amoeboid motion is characteristic of the amoeba, a unicellular
protozoan, it is also found in nonmuscle cells of multicellular
organisms. These cells contain myosin and actin, which differ
in some aspects of their structure from the corresponding
proteins in muscles because of variations in the genes that
encode them.
