Gliding motility and amoeboid motion

All the living cells tend to relocate themselves from one surface to another as human beings do so by the process of moving by walking, running, etc at molecular levels these happen at a small scale with a large involvement of muscles and other membranes. The food which we intake also moves via small movements inside our digestive tracts with the help of the motion called peristalsis. Now, this makes one excited to know exactly what gliding motility and amoeboid motion are.

What is gliding motility?

The gliding motility is the type of movement observed in bacteria where they relocate themselves from one surface to another using pili, flagella or any other external appendages. These appendages extend from their main cell surface, such that hundreds of legs are generated over a cell surface to provide motility. Bacterial motility comprises these surface appendages or other machinery whereas gliding motility stays an exception. The walking movement of mycoplasma is called motility. 

The amoeboid motion

The most common locomotive motion in the eukaryotic cells is the amoeboid motion. It can be characterized by the cycles of several contractions and expansions in the cell membrane and cell body.It is widely studied in the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum cell as it displays an ellipsoidal profile(both monopodial or polypoidal forms) also it goes sunder rapid gliding movement involving repetitive cycles of contraction and protrusion with a small adhesiveness along with the substrate.

The amoeba uses two main mechanically distinct processes to push itself forward which are:

1. Filopodia-lamellipodia mechanism which depends on the actin-polymerization, and

2. Bleb mechanism under which – a local membrane of the cell where the cortical -CSK is being disrupted is pushed outwards by the pressure exerted by the cytoplasm which is generated by the myosin II.

Both the protrusion mechanisms generally involve a significant number of distortions among the cell membranes at the face or frontal head of the cell to activate the MscCa for providing feedback between the force-generating mechanisms and the distortions in the resultant membrane.

Some examples of the cells that show amoeboid motility are:

1. Eosinophils

2. stem cells 

3. neutrophils

4. lymphocytes

5. various tumour cells(specific) that are associated with lymphoma, leukaemia and small cell lung carcinoma.

Gastric motility

In the process of gastric motility, there are a series of muscular contractions involved which are caused by the muscles and are referred to as peristalsis.

The term gastric motility refers to the general process by which the food in animals or any other living organism(which have a digestive tract) travels through the digestive tract by the motion named peristalsis. If a person is suffering from gastric motility disorder it means that the peristalsis contractions are not occurring properly and the food consumed is not able to go through the digestive(intestines) tracts properly.

The terms associated with gastric motility are gastrointestinal motility or intestinal motility, nonetheless, all these terms refer to the same meaning which is the movement of food through the digestive tracts in the living organisms.

The process starts from the very first step where we eat any food from our mouth, as saliva is mixed in the food and breakdown of food starts taking place then when it moves down the oesophagus a mucous membrane is formed to provide motility to the food, this leads to the stomach where HCl is mixed along with other enzymes to the food, majority of the digestion takes place here, followed by stomach food reaches to the intestines and along this journey, the peristalsis movement is always in place and the food is excreted through the anus.

Conclusion

The topic of gliding motility and amoeboid motion has looked into what is gliding motility and what is amoeboid motion. Moreover, it has also looked into the functioning of motility in amoeba, in great detail. The various gastrointestinal movements have been discussed under the topic. The FAQs section attempts to address the most probable queries that might arise. The FAQs section provides additional information which will aid a better understanding of the topic.