Chemotaxis in Physarum, a Plasmodial Slime Mold

 

Donna M. Bozzone

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 1996, Volume 17

Abstract

Physarum polycephalum, a true or plasmodial slime mold (myxomycete) can exist in several distinct forms including fruiting bodies, plasmodia, and amoebae. The experiment described here studies the response of the plasmodium, a yellow slimy mass of indefinite morphology. Plasmodia are negatively phototactic and “crawl” to seek food. In nature, they are found under the bark of decaying trees feeding on microorganisms and organic material. A plasmodium can grow to a fairly large size (up to 30 cm in diameter; Sauer, 1982) and despite this large mass, it is not composed of separate cells but is one huge amoeba-like cell containing many nuclei (Sauer, 1982).

Keywords:  statistical analysis, slime mold

Purdue University (1995)