Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| an organism that is not adapted to prevailing conditions or producing offspring that maintain its contribution of genes to the next generation |
| the subdivision of an organism or of an organ into more or less equivalent parts; cell division |
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protoplasm
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protoplasm pro·to·plasm (prō'tə-plāz'əm)
n.
The complex, semifluid, translucent substance that constitutes the living matter of plant and animal cells and manifests the essential life functions of a cell. Composed of proteins, fats, and other molecules suspended in water, it includes the nucleus and cytoplasm.
pro'to·plas'mic (-plāz'mĭk) adj.
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protoplasm  (prō'tə-plāz'əm) Pronunciation Key
The semifluid, translucent substance that forms the living matter in all plant and animal cells. Composed of proteins, fats, and other substances suspended in water, it includes the cytoplasm and (in eukaryotes) the nucleus. |
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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The jellylike material in a cell, both inside and outside the nucleus, where the chemical reactions that support life take place.
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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protoplasm
the cytoplasm and nucleus of a cell. The term was first defined in 1835 as the ground substance of living material and, hence, responsible for all living processes. Advocates of the protoplasm concept implied that cells were either fragments or containers of protoplasm. The weakness of the concept was its inability to account for the origin of formed structures within the cell, especially the nucleus. Today the term is used to mean simply the cytoplasm and nucleus. The word protoplasm is somewhat unpopular in modern biology, although the term protoplasmic streaming is commonly used to describe the movement of the cytoplasm.
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