CYTOPLASMIC STREAMING

also called protoplasmic streaming the movement of the living substance (cytoplasm) within a plant or animal cell. The motion transports nutrients, enzymes, and, in plants, large virus particles within cells. In unicellular organisms such as amoeba, it provides the mechanism for cell locomotion. First discovered in the 1830s, the presence of cytoplasmic streaming helped convince biologists that cells were the fundamental units of life. Although the mechanism of cytoplasmic streaming is not completely understood, it is thought to be driven by actin filaments, long protein fibres aligned in rows parallel to the streaming just inside the cell membrane. Myosin molecules attached to cellular organelles may move along the actin fibres, towing the organelles and sweeping other cytoplasmic contents in the same direction.