What is Division of labour ? Know with examples.

What is Division of labour ?

As we know all living organisms made up of  the cell. A unicellular organism (e.g., Amoeba, Paramecium, etc.) has a single cell in its body, i.e., a single cell performs all basic life activities.

For example, in Amoeba, movement of a cell, intake of food and respiratory gases (O2), intercellular digestion, metabolism, respiration, osmoregulation and excretion are all done by the same cell. However, in multicellular organisms (e.g., human beings) there are millions of cells. Most of these cells are specialised to carry out only a few functions efficiently. These function are taken up by different groups of cells. Thus, we can say that there is a division of labour in the multicellular organisms.

For example, in human beings, muscle cells contract and relax to cause movement of a body part, nerve cells or neurons carry messages, blood flows to transport oxygen, food, hormones and waste materials (CO2, urea) and so on. Likewise, in the plants, cells of phloem conducts food from leaves to other parts of the plants. Thus, we see that cells, which specialize in a function, arte grouped together and form a tissue (Fr. tissue-woven). blood, phloem, muscle are all examples os tissues.

The term tissue was coined by Bichat in 1792. Study of tissues is called histology (Gk. histos = tissue; logos = study;.

Keep in mind

1.    Marie Francois Xavier Bichat (1771-1802) was a french antomist and pathologist, the father of histology. Although working without the microscope, Bichat distinguished 21 types of elementry tissues from which the organs of the human body are composed.

2.    Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) is considered as founder of histology.

3.    The term histology was coined by Mayer in 1819.

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