Why does amphibian blood have a nucleus

The three main types of blood cells are red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. The main difference between human blood cells and frog blood cells is that human red blood cells lack nuclei whereas frog blood cells contain nuclei.

Losing the nucleus enables the red blood cell to contain more oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, thus enabling more oxygen to be transported in the blood and boosting our metabolism.

Prokaryotes are organisms whose cells lack a nucleus and other organelles. Prokaryotes are divided into two distinct groups: the bacteria and the archaea, which scientists believe have unique evolutionary lineages. It contains copper, so their blood is blue.

And there are other varieties and colors out there among animals. Well, today I learned something new and wanted to share with you all. When they enter the bloodstream for the first time, they eject their nuclei and organelles, so they can carry more hemoglobin, and thus, more oxygen.

Red blood cells have adapted this characteristic no nucleus for several reasons. It simply allows the red blood cell to have more hemoglobin. Therefore, it allows RBC to transfer more oxygen. Lack of nucleus in RBC also allows the cell to have an unique bi concave shape that helps with diffusion. This drawing highlights the similarities and differences in red blood cell structure, size and shape across species. About 95 percent of the dry weight of the red blood cell consists of hemoglobin, the substance necessary for oxygen transport.

Hemoglobin is a protein; a molecule contains four polypeptide chains a tetramer , each chain consisting of more than amino acids. Most mammalian red blood cells have no nucleus. This allows the red blood cell to use all of its volume to transport oxygen. In addition to better oxygen diffusion across the membranes, some older scientific papers mentioned that it lightened the cardiac workload. Each extruded RBC nuclei is approximately 40 picograms.

A normal healthy adult individual would produce about 2 million RBC per second. That would be 0. However, I couldn't trace the scientific evidence for this claim, but this have been cited by some scientific papers.

The other advantage would be to reduce risk of hemolysis when transversing through the microvasculature. In other words, mature RBC can move along tiny blood capillaries by changing their biconcave shape to bell-shaped I think , so that they will not rupture and die.

Also, not all RBCs have similar shapes and sizes. You might want to google it for more information. I think camels have slightly different RBC morphology. The only function of the red blood cell is to transport oxygen, and nothing else. Its concave shape is to increase its surface area, so more oxygen can be transported per cell. The absence of a nucleus means it can be significantly more concave than an other cell of analogous size, meaning it can carry more oxygen.

Other answers are more detailed, but this is the main reason that there is an absence of a nucleus. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why do mammalian red blood cells lack a nucleus? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 8 months ago. Active 5 years ago. Viewed k times. Improve this question. Alan Boyd John Smith John Smith 2, 3 3 gold badges 18 18 silver badges 27 27 bronze badges.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. This is also true for birds. Blood can be collected from these creatures and the red blood cells isolated by centrifugation. After removal of the residual plasma, purified cells can then be treated with specific enzymes and detergents to digest the cellular envelope and release DNA from its protein complex. Microscopy Primer. Light and Color.

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