Friday, December 14, 2012

What is the difference between cytoplasm and protoplasm

cytoplasm 
Cytoplasm is a homogeneous, generally
clear jelly-like material that fills cells. The cytoplasm consists of cytosol and the
cellular organelles, except the cell nucleus. The cytosol is made up of water, salts,
organic molecules and many enzymes that catalyze reactions. The cytoplasm plays an
important role in a cell, serving as a "molecular soup" in which the organelles are
suspended and held together by a fatty membrane. It is found within the plasma membrane
of a cell and surrounds the nuclear envelope and the cytoplasmic
organelles.


Function
The cytoplasm plays a
mechanical role, that is, to maintain the shape and consistency of the cell, and to
provide suspension to the organelles. It is also a storage place for chemical substances
indispensable to life, which are involved in vital metabolic reactions, such as
anaerobic glycolysis and protein
synthesis.


protoplasm 
Protoplasm is the living
substance inside the cell. At the simplest level, it is divisible into cytoplasm and
nucleoplasm. It is also sometimes termed "bioplasm", (Beale: meaning the essential
substance of living matter within a cell) and is distinct from non-living cell
components lumped under "ergastic substances". Ergastic substances can occur in the
protoplasm. In many plant cells most of the volume of the cell is not occupied by
protoplasm, but by "tonoplast": a large water filled vacuole enclosed by a
membrane. 
The idea that protoplasm is divisible into a ground substance
called "cytoplasm" and a structural body called the Cell nucleus, reflects the more
primitive knowledge of cell structure that preceded the development of powerful
microscope of organic and inorganic substances, mysteriously directed by the nucleus and
controlled by the cell membrane. Today, it is known that the cytoplasm is structurally
very complex, and that protoplasm is living because of the complexity of the
"cytoplasmic organeles" and their careful separation and orchestration of multiple
chemical processes. 

Charles Darwin and his contemporaries viewed
"protoplasm" as the sole content of a cell, in other words, cells were nothing but
simple blobs composed of protoplasm. This simplified view of "cells biology"
circumvented the problem of the origin of life that Darwin and others struggled with.
However, that problem was later introduced in the 1950s when the complex structure of
DNA was discovered. 

The concept of protoplasm is the essence of life,
being something nearly sacred, induplicable by man. Organisms are able to ingest
chemicals produced by nature and made in a laboratory. It can evolve into quite a number
of other living creatures. 

Protoplasm exists in three forms: solid
state, liquid state and sometimes a combined solid and liquid
state. 

Whether the protoplasm is in either of the three forms depends
upon the physiological state of the cell. 

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