Holozoic nutrition is the process of nutrition that takes place in organisms which take solid or liquid food inside their body. Amoeba follows holozoic nutrition.
Holozoic nutrition in amoeba takes place in the following steps:
- Ingestion
- Digestion
- Absorption
- Assimilation
- Egestion
The different processes involved in holozoic nutrition in amoeba are:
1. Ingestion: Ingestion is the process of taking in the food into the body either by swallowing or absorbing it. Amoeba pushes out the pseudopodia to encircle the food and engulfs it forming a food vacuole. This process is known as phagocytosis.
2. Digestion: Various enzymes from the cytoplasm enter into the food vacuole and break them down into simple soluble molecules.
3. Absorption: The simple soluble food is absorbed by cytoplasm of Amoeba from food vacuoles through the process of diffusion.
4. Assimilation: Amoeba cell obtains energy from the absorbed food through respiration. This energy is utilised by Amoeba for its growth and repair of the body.
5. Egestion: When a considerable amount of undigested food gets collected inside Amoeba, its cell membrane ruptures and throws out the undigested food.
