Talk:Pseudopodia

This article seems about stub size and could use expansion. Sodaplayer ^{talk contributions ^_^} 00:48, 16 March 2007 (UTC)Reply

Have made some additions to the page let me know if they are fine or not. They are true though however are not elaborate enough. -simmu1992 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Simmu1992 (talk • contribs) 07:12, 4 November 2008 (UTC)Reply

The term "pseudopod" is also used in entomology ("the false legs on... larvae"). Should the multicellular perspective get a mention in this article? --128.146.29.73 (talk) 03:10, 21 September 2009 (UTC)Reply

After reading the article I still don't know what a pseudopod is.

I don't know what is meant with this:
"...are temporary projections of eukaryotic cells. Cells having this faculty are generally referred to as amoeboids."
What faculty, and what is a temporary projection?

Maybe I'm just stupid, but I think it should be clarified. --CoincidentalBystander (talk) 06:39, 16 May 2010 (UTC)Reply

Well, it doesn't explain truthly how can some protozoa move using this, so it wasn't what I was looking --preceding unsigned comment added by 83.40.97.170 • contribs) 07:19 2013-05-11 (UTC)

This article is currently the subject of an educational assignment.

Hello,

I’m a Biology student from Imperial College London and am currently doing a coursework for my Science Communication module. I must edit a Wikipedia page and have decided to do this one as I think there are possibilities to improve it.

I have to do all the changes I need in one big modification. Instead of just doing it out of the blue, I wanted to communicate what I intend to do ideally – Also, note that I have only done minimal amount of research on this matter for the moment, so I might change my mind on some things afterwards. Nevertheless, I will do a debriefing at the end to tell you what I did and didn’t change in the end. Otherwise, I’m also writing this to respect the ones that edited this page before. I will try not to change too much what you wrote. And if there’s a modification that you think isn’t reasonable, I would be glad to kindly discuss it with you in this section.

So, the kind of modifications I would like to operate are:

1st paragraph:

- I first wanted to make the first paragraph, at least, more accessible to a large lay audience but I now think that it’s pretty good as it is, because I hardly imagine someone to just search for pseudopods while not having prior knowledge on what is a ‘cytoplasm’ or ‘eukaryotic cell’. So, I think an audience of 1st year undergraduates in life sciences is ok. But I will still see if I can do some things to improve the accessibility of this page.

- “of an eukaryotic cell membrane or a unicellular protist”: I think there’s a triple repetition here. A protist is already defined as unicellular (exceptions aside), and a protist is an “eukaryotic cell”, so I think we could just say “of an eukaryotic cell”.

- I think the 3 last sentences of this paragraph can be simplified (the first one and third one being quite repetitive too).

2nd paragraph:

- “It is supposed that actin polymerization is at the origin of the force propelling the cell forward”: It’s quite vague, it could mean it propels the cell the same way the flagella move bacteria, or Listeria monocytogenes are transported with actin comet tails.

3rd paragraph:

- ‘Actin’, forming ‘microfilaments’, and ‘myosin’ are mentioned in the first paragraph as constitutive of pseudopods. Then in the third paragraph, it is mentioned that these latter are formed by ‘microtubules’ and ‘filament structures’. The fact that you have two different descriptions of the components of a pseudopod separated in two distant paragraphs, I feel like it could confuse the first-year undergraduate trying to understand the components of a pseudopod, or at the least, demand some time for him to link everything up or do some more research. Even microfilaments and filaments are slightly confusing. Microfilaments are specific to actin filaments, while ‘filaments structures’ broadly refer to actin filaments, microtubules, intermediate filaments (as lamins) and myofilaments.

- Strangely, the lamellipodium is not mentioned as a type of pseudopod. And the only time it is mentioned, it is said that "Cytoplasm flows into the lamellipodium, forming the pseudopodia.”. When I first read this, I was thinking it was meant that lamellipodia were sort of platforms for pseudopodia to form, but then, the website referenced for this line integrates lamellipodia into the pseudopodia category.

4th paragraph:

- I feel like the transition in the talk about the ‘capture’ function and the ‘locomotion’ one is quite sharp: “The functions of pseudopodia include locomotion and the capturing of prey /.../ A common example of this sort of amoeboid cell [using pseudopods to capture preys] is the human white blood cell. Human mesenchymal stem cells are a good example of a cell type which uses pseudopodia for locomotive reasons” At ‘Human mesenchymal stem cells” I’m still thinking I’m told about another example for the ‘capturing prey’ category, but the sentence seems weird if so, and that’s only at the end of the sentence I understand that I’m no more in the ‘capture’ category, but the ‘locomotion’ one. It’s quite confusing. If I correct it, I will whether split it into two paragraphs to better mark the separation or rearrange the second sentence.

5th paragraph:

- “Pseudopodia do not all look like amorphous blobs”: this sentence feels quite strange as it wasn’t told before they were, and not everyone think that pseudopodia are amorphous blobs before getting on this page.

The morphology part:

- I will try to add information and lamellipodia description in it. I will not try to develop too much those that already have a wikipedia page. If I find enough material for each, I will separate them into different parts and not just paragraphs to make the different types more visible.

Thanks for bearing with me until the end of this long text. I must submit this coursework, or in other words publish the editing, in exactly one week, before next Thursday. If you have some advices or think there is some sort of problem(s) with one or some modifications, tell me.

Best regards, Sony St-Au (talk) 17:27, 14 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

• Sony St-Au, thanks for proposing changes first. I don't know if your teacher is active on Wikipedia--if they are, please tell us what their account is so maybe some concerns can be communicated. First of all, it is a terrible idea to make a grand edit of the entire article, because if there's only a few things wrong with it the whole edit is likely to be reverted. Smaller changes are more likely to be successful. Second, what you're proposing is not just copy edits, and if you say you've done "minimal research", it is not a good idea to make big content changes and then correct them afterwards: again, you are likely to be reverted. Please get in contact with your teacher and convey these concerns. Thank you, Drmies (talk) 17:31, 14 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
• Polypompholyx, I believe you are the teacher of record here. Really, "one big edit"? Drmies (talk) 17:54, 14 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
• Drmies Hello, thanks for your help. You might be right about doing smaller changes instead of a big one. I think the idea was that it would be harder for my supervisor to mark me if I were to do multiple little changes. I will contact him to ask again just in case, I might be wrong. His pseudo on Wikipedia is in fact Polypompholyx. About the "minimal research", I'm a biology third year student, and already have some knowledge on cell motility. However, and only for the moment, I have only done little research on the specific subject of pseudopodia but I will start as soon as I can. I will take the time to develop sufficient knowledge as a background, prior to edit this page (one week is short, but they let us a lot of free time for it). Sony St-Au (talk) 18:02, 14 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

I suggested preparation of new material in a Sandbox or using Drafts if the article was a couple-of-sentence stub or brand new, and then to transfer the material into the stub; however, I recommended smaller cumulative edits if the article was already somewhat mature (as this is). polypompholyx (talk) 08:49, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply