The colloquial expression “let's go out to eat” implies a relationship between movement and ingestion that can also be found at the cellular level. Phagocytic cells, such as neutrophils and Dictyostelium discoideum amoebae, have a marked capacity to move towards their intended meals by detecting and orienting towards chemoattractants released by bacteria and other microorganisms. In the case of neutrophils, subsequent phagocytosis of bacteria is for the purpose of host defense (as opposed to nutrition), but the relationship remains nevertheless.
There is also a mechanistic relationship between motility and phagocytosis. Both processes often involve the directed elaboration of cell extensions, either in the form of pseudopods that envelop particulate substrates during phagocytosis or the pronounced membrane ruffles that are found at the leading edge of a motile cell. Both processes are also well known to be highly dependent on...
