Question

White blood cells engulf bacteria and eliminate the waste to the extracellular environment. What is this called?

a. osmosis
b. active transport
c. filtration
d. exocytosis

Answer 1

White blood cells use the process of exocytosis to expel waste material, like the remnants of ingested bacteria, to the extracellular environment after phagocytosis.

Step-by-step explanation:

White blood cells engulf bacteria and eliminate the waste to the extracellular environment through a process known as exocytosis. In phagocytosis, a form of endocytosis, white blood cells such as neutrophils surround and ingest bacteria.

Once the bacteria are destroyed, the waste material is expelled from the cell into the extracellular space via exocytosis, which contrasts with other transport mechanisms like osmosis, active transport, and filtration that generally involve smaller molecules.

Answer 2

White blood cells expel waste after engulfing bacteria through a process called exocytosis, which involves the merging of waste-containing vesicle with the plasma membrane.

Step-by-step explanation:

The process where white blood cells engulf bacteria and eliminate the waste to the extracellular environment is called exocytosis. This is a part of the cellular transport mechanism where cells remove or export substances. After white blood cells, such as neutrophils, engulf the invading microorganisms through phagocytosis, they need to expel the remaining waste. The undigested waste from the phagolysosome is then exported out of the cell by merging the waste-containing vesicle with the plasma membrane, which is the definition of exocytosis.