extracytoplamic

Extracytoplamic is a rarely used adjective in cellular biology intended to describe entities or processes located outside the cytoplasm. In most discussions, it is used to refer to material in the extracellular space or at the boundary between the cytoplasm and the surrounding environment. The term is not part of standard glossaries and there is no formal, widely accepted definition.

Etymology and variants: It appears as a variant of extracytoplasmic formed from the prefix extra-, the root cytoplasm, and the suffix -ic. Alternative spellings include extracytoplamic and extracytoplasmic; the latter is the most common. Many writers treat extracytoplamic as a misspelling or informal variant of extracytoplasmic.

Usage and limitations: When used, extracytoplamic usually designates components outside the cytoplasm such as extracellular matrix, secreted proteins, or periplasmic proteins in bacteria. However, due to ambiguity with extracellular and extracytoplasmic terms, the term is avoided in formal literature.

For clarity, most authors prefer extracytoplasmic or simply extracellular when describing outside-the-cytoplasm contexts. See also cytoplasm, extracellular space, periplasm, and extracytoplasmic.