Impact of Morphological Changes on the Motility of {\it Amoeba proteus}

Bio-mechanical properties of cell membrane, actin and cytoskeleton have influence on the cell locomotion. To explore, morphological changes were induced in {\it Amoeba proteus} by depriving nutrition, also either through ATP mediated or through KCl mediated membrane depolarization. We observed that, membrane depolarization leads to complete loss/reduction of pseudopodia in a dose dependent manner, gradually {\it A. proteus} becomes globular. We also report that with depravation of its nutrition (Chilomonas) {\it A. proteus} transforms them into tube/filament like structure and this transformation is reversible with the supply of Chilomonas. Results indicate that the structural and locomotion variation of {\it A. proteus} through nucleotides may not be just a membrane phenomenon, but may involve signaling mechanisms. Further, we carried out immunostaining of {\it A. proteus} with P2X2 and P2Y2 antibodies to analyze their localization and the extent of expression. The result indicated that in normal {\it A. proteus} receptors are dispersed uniformly, whereas in filament shaped {\it A. proteus} P2X2-receptor was found to be localized, unlike P2Y2 receptor. As nucleotides are known to cause structural changes in the organism, we report corresponding changes in their locomotion.