What’s the main problem of amoeba living inn fresh water?

Question

Been looking for this answer all day please help .Home-works due tomorrow

Answer 1

Hi Smart G.

Think about it this way:

1. An amoeba is a single cell organism. A bag of organelles and nutrients, if you will.
2. Fresh water most certainly has lower concentrations of nutrients in it that the amoeba does.

If these two conditions are true, the the amoeba finds itself on the wrong side of osmosis. It is hypertonic (saltier, basically) compared to the water (the water is hypotonic). This means that osmosis will try and flood the poor amoeba in order to dilute its nutrients to balance the pressure on both sides of the cell membrane. If the amoeba does not have a mechanism to evacuate this excess water, then it will eventually swell up like a balloon and pop!

Make sense?

Answer 2

Hello,

Introductory Answer: Are you currently studying membranes and tonicity or are you studying ecology? From a cell biology standpoint, there is nothing wrong with a freshwater amoeba living in freshwater--the tonicity of the interior of the cell would be the same as it's environment. If you transferred a freshwater amoeba into salt water the amoeba is hypotonic to its environment and would therefore shrivel. If you took a saltwater amoeba and put it in freshwater, the amoeba would be hypertonic to its environment and water would rush in and lyse the cell. Context matters here.

From an ecology standpoint, there are pathogenic amoeba that live in freshwater that can kill humans or cause disease--e.g. Naegleria fowleri.j

Advanced Answer: Depending on how advanced the course you are taking is, you may have learned that amoebas have a contractile vacuole. In a freshwater environment, the cell may be a little hypertonic to its environment, in which case the contractile vacuole enables them release some excess water from the cell.

Provide a little more context and I can provide better help.