Question

Define cytoplasm in brief.

Answer 1

Cytoplasm means "cell life-substance" which is outside the nucleus, everything inside the cell. It performs all of the cell's functions which are not performed by the nucleus. It's all inside the egg, in an egg without a nucleus.

Complete Answer:
The fluid that fills a cell is the cytoplasm. Scientists used to call it a protoplasm of fluid. They didn't know about the many different kinds of fluids in the cell early on.
The mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, the Golgi apparatus, and nucleus contain special fluid. Cytoplasm (the fluid also called cytosol in the cell) and nucleoplasm (the fluid in the nucleus) are the only two 'plasms' left.
A highly viscous (gel-like) material is the cytoplasm enclosed within the cell membrane. It consists of water (approximately 85 percent), proteins (10 to 15 percent), lipids (2 to 4 percent), nucleic acids, inorganic salts and, in smaller quantities, polysaccharides.
Organelles are also part of the cytoplasm.
Nine-tenths of the whole cell makes up the cytoplasm.

Many of the cytoplasm's other functions include:
(I) Maintain shape of the cell
(II) Movement of cells
(III) Material exchange

- The two layers of the cytoplasm are also separated. The ectoplasm and the endoplasm contain these. For the most part, both are used to characterise the protozoa cytoplasm (in particular, amoeba) that differs in form, position, and function.
- One of the cytoplasm's key functions is to allow cells to preserve their turgidity, enabling the cells to retain their shape.

Other functions of cytoplasm are as follows:
- The cytoplasm's jelly-like fluid is composed of salt and water and is present inside the cell membrane and contains all the cell and organelle components.
- The cytoplasm is home to many of the cell 's activities as it includes chemicals, enzymes that are essential for the waste to break down.
- In metabolic processes, the cytoplasm also assists.
- Cytoplasm provides the cell with a shape. This fills up the cells so that the organelles can stay in their place. Without cytoplasm, the cells would deflate and substances would not quickly permeate from one organelle to the other.
- There are no organelles in the cytosol, a part of the cytoplasm. Instead, matrix boundaries that fill up the cell portion that does not contain the organelles are enclosed by the cytosol.

Note: The word 'Cytoplasm' was invented by a Swiss biologist named Rudolf von Kölliker in 1863, but it was known as a synonym for protoplasm. The term adapted its context gradually, however, to the new sense of the term "cytoplasm”.