Everything about Protoplasm totally explained
In biology,
protoplasm is the viscid, translucent, polyphasic
colloid with water as the continuous phase that makes up the essential material of all plant and animal cells. Protoplasm is composed mainly of nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and inorganic salts. The protoplasm surrounding the nucleus is known as the
cytoplasm and that composing the nucleus is the
nucleoplasm (sometimes termed
bioplasm).
Protoplasm is the living
substance inside the
cell, and is distinct from non-living cell components lumped under "
ergastic substances", although ergastic substances can occur in the protoplasm. In many
plant cells most of the volume of the cell isn't occupied by protoplasm, but by "
tonoplast," a large water filled
vacuole enclosed by a
membrane.
Older theories
The idea that protoplasm is divisible into a ground substance called "cytoplasm" and a structural body called the
Cell nucleus reflects most of the more primitive knowledge of cell structure that preceded the development of powerful micrographs of
organic and
inorganic substances, when it seemed that cytoplasm was mysteriously directed by the nucleus and controlled by the
cell membrane.
Today, it's known that the cytoplasm is structurally very complex, and that protoplasm is living because of the complexity of the "cytoplasmic organelles" and their careful separation and orchestration of multiple chemical processes.
Phase
Protoplasm exists in three forms: in the
solid state, the
liquid state and sometimes
in a combined solid and liquid state. The
physiological state of the cell determines which form it's in at any given time.
History of the term
The concept of protoplasm was perceived as the essence of life ("vital force"), being something nearly sacred, induplicable by man as it can evolve into quite a number of other living creatures. Some also believed that the
seabed was covered in an ooze of pure protoplasm, as the
ocean was the ultimate origin of life.
Charles Darwin and his 19th century contemporaries viewed "protoplasm" as the holistic content of a cell; in other words, cells were composed of a mysterious "proto-plasm," a substance that had the ability of
self replication.
This simplified view of cell biology circumvented the problem of the
origin of life and protogenesis that Darwin and others struggled with, and was a part of the reason for the 30 years delay for Darwin's publication.. However, that problem was later introduced in the 1950s when the complex molecular structure of
DNA was discovered with following research into the complex biochemistry of living things, that elucidated the mechanisms for self-replicating biological nano-machinery.
Further Information
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