Compare the process of feeding in a paramecium and an amoeba?

Answer 1

Paramecium feed on microorganisms like bacteria, algae, and yeasts. In order to gather its food the paramecium uses its cilia to sweep the food along with some water into the cell mouth after it falls into the oral groove. The food goes through the cell mouth into the gullet, which is like the stomach. When there is enough food in it so that it has reached a certain size it breaks away and forms a food vacuole. The food vacuole travels through the cell, through the back end first. As it moves along enzymes from the cytoplasm enter the vacuole and digest it. The digested food then goes into the cytoplasm and the vacuole gets smaller and smaller. When the vacuole reaches the anal pore the remaining undigested waste is removed.

Amoeba is a microphagous feeder, which means that it feeds upon small aquatic organisms like bacteria, flagellates, ciliates and minute food particles.

When a hungry Amoeba approaches to some food particle, it produces out its pseudopodia in the form of food cup which engulf the food particle by turning into food vacuole. the food also contain some water. this complete ingestion. the next step is digestion which is faciliated by the lysosomes. A few lysosomes surround the food vacuole and get fused with the membrane to discharge their enzymatic contents(proteases, amylases and lipases)into it. Hence the digestion is intacellular. At this stage the vacuole becomes a digestive vacuole. It decrease in size as the water is withdrawn and its content first become acidic(pH 5.6) and then alkaline(pH 7.3). When the digestion is completed, the digestive vacuole membrane is drawn into numerous fine canals. the soluble food particles are passed into the canals and finally into the surrounding cytoplasm by micropinocytosis. the digested food, water and minerals are absorbed(absorption) into the cytoplasm and circulate in it, through cyclosis where the food is assimilated into new protoplasm or is oxidized to librate energy. the undigested food is egested by exocytosis at the rear end.

Answer 2

Simply put.

Paramecium use their cilia to sweep food particle laden water into their oral groove ( analogous to a mouth ) while amoebae engulf food particle by extending their pseudopodia around the particles of food.