Ref ID : 7683
Lucyna Grebecka; Local Contraction and the New Front Formation site in Amoeba proteus. Protistologica XVIII(3):397-402, 1982
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Stimulation of the smooth lateral wall of an advancing pseudopodium by two simultaneously applied mechanical or photic stimuli results in formation of a new pseudopodial front between the two stimulated points. It is explained, according to the generalized cortical contraction theory of amoeboid movement, by radial pulling the cortical material toward the both centres of induced contraction. Between them the antagonistic tension forces distend and disjoin the cortex, which is followed by the initiation of a front. This interpretation holds also true for the single contracting stimuli which, when applied in similar localizations, provoke the formation of new fronts on the opposite wall of the ectoplasmic cylinder. The tension forces radially spreading through the cortex from a single contraction centre come into antagonistic relations when meeting together on the opposite side of the pseudopodium.