Phagocytosis

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See Phagocytosis in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Phagocytosis is when a cell engulfs an object, usually another cell, often a bacterium, through the envagination of its cell membrane, and often aided by the extention of pseudopodia (imagine the way an amoeba "flows" over its victim). The engulfed object then is trapped within a vacuole, and pulled deep into the cell cytoplasm, where lysosomes fuse with the vacuole to break down the engulfed object into its component parts through acidic reactions.

Some parasites are able to withstand the acidity of lysosomes, such as the species of Leishmania, and possibly Mimivirus. As such, these particular kinds of parasites infect their hosts when they are phagocytosed by the correct host.

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