Question

In three to five sentences, compare the process of digesting food in an amoeba (unicellular) to those in a mouse (multicellular)

Answer 1

An amoeba digests food by engulfing particles or small organisms into a membrane-bound food vacuole where lysosomal enzymes break them down intracellularly; nutrients then diffuse through the single cell’s cytoplasm and waste is expelled by exocytosis. A mouse performs extracellular digestion in a specialized alimentary canal: mechanical breakdown in the mouth and stomach and enzymatic breakdown in the stomach and intestines, with nutrients absorbed across intestinal epithelium into the bloodstream. In short, the amoeba uses phagocytosis and intracellular digestion within one cell, while the mouse uses a coordinated, multicellular system of organs and tissues to digest and distribute nutrients. The mouse’s circulatory system and specialized cells allow far greater division of labor and transport than the amoeba’s simple diffusion.