Protoplasm

Protoplasm (ˈproʊtəˌplæzəm; ) is the living part of a cell that is surrounded by a plasma membrane. It is a mixture of small molecules such as ions, monosaccharides, amino acids, and macromolecules such as proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, etc. In some definitions, it is a general term for the cytoplasm (e.g., Mohl, 1846), but for others, it also includes the nucleoplasm (e.g., Strasburger, 1882). For Sharp (1921), "According to the older usage the extra-nuclear portion of the protoplast [the entire cell, excluding the cell wall] was called "protoplasm," but the nucleus also is composed of protoplasm, or living substance in its broader sense. The current consensus is to avoid this ambiguity by employing Strasburger's (1882) terms cytoplasm [coined by Kölliker (1863), originally as synonym for protoplasm] and nucleoplasm [term coined by van Beneden (1875), or karyoplasm, used by Flemming (1878)]." The cytoplasm definition of Strasburger excluded the plastids (Chromatoplasm). Like the nucleus, whether to include the vacuole in the protoplasm concept is controversial. Besides "protoplasm", many other related terms and distinctions were used for the cell contents over time. These were as follows: Urschleim (Oken, 1802, 1809), Protoplasma (Purkinje, 1840, von Mohl, 1846), Primordialschlauch (primordial utricle, von Mohl, 1846), sarcode (Dujardin, 1835, 1841), Cytoplasma (Kölliker, 1863), Hautschicht/Körnerschicht (ectoplasm/endoplasm, Pringsheim, 1854; Hofmeister, 1867), Grundsubstanz (ground substance, Cienkowski, 1863), metaplasm/protoplasm (Hanstein, 1868), deutoplasm/protoplasm (van Beneden, 1870), bioplasm (Beale, 1872), paraplasm/protoplasm (Kupffer, 1875), inter-filar substance theory (Velten, 1876) Hyaloplasma (Pfeffer, 1877), Protoplast (Hanstein, 1880), Enchylema/Hyaloplasma (Hanstein, 1880), Kleinkörperchen or Mikrosomen (small bodies or microsomes, Hanstein, 1882), paramitome (Flemming, 1882), Idioplasma (Nageli, 1884), Zwischensubstanz (inter-alveolar substance, Bütschli, 1892), Grundplasma (ground plasma, Schütt, 1895), ergastoplasme (Garnier, 1897), phaneroplasm/cryptoplasm (Seifriz, 1931), cytoplasmic matrix (Munson, 1899; zytoplasmatische Matrix, Bergmann, 1956), Protoplasma- oder Zelleinschlüsse (protoplasmic or cellular inclusions, Szymonowicz, 1901), kinoplasm/trophoplasm (Strasburger et at.