Cytostome

Cytostome also cell mouth are called in a certain area of ​​protist cell, where the cell membrane has openings for the intake of food. Inside the cell arrived, the food particles are then incorporated into food vacuoles where they are digested.

In ciliates, but also numerous flagellates in the narrow sense, it refers only to the actual place that is used to hold the food in the cell interior ( phagocytosis ). In a broader sense also surrounding Mundvorräume be added in, for example, areas with Oralbewimperung or the buccal cavity.

Openings between individual plates of the sulcus near the approaches of flagella in phagotrophen Euglenozoa and some ciliates are also called cytostome in some dinoflagellates the base of the cytopharynx. In Apicomplexa, it refers to the micro pores of the skin, at the Sauginfusorien related to food intake and tentacle formation.