Year: 2022

THE LINK. “We argue that slime moulds are powerful model systems for solving several outstanding questions in collective behaviour. In particular, slime mould may hold the key to linking individual-level mechanisms to colony-level behaviours.” https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article-abstract/40/6/798/2400841 View in LinkedIn

ENVIRONMENTALLY TRIGGERED. “The Physarum slime mold is a large multinuclear cell, formed in response to environmental conditions.” https://lnkd.in/gawWKmt View in LinkedIn

SACRIFICING INDIVIDUALITY. “By aggregating, individual Dictyostelium cells may gain the same benefits as ‘selfish herds’ of animals—individuals move towards each other to lower their risk of predation. A major protective component of the slug is the slime sheath—a mucopolysaccharide exudate, rich in protein and trilamellar cellulose that encloses the cellular core.” https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/40/6/798/2400841 View in LinkedIn

SWARMING SIGNAL. “Synchronisation of behaviour is a key hallmark of many collective systems. In the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum, starvation causes cells to secrete the signal molecule cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). These behaviours create a positive feedback loop, whereby the secretion of cAMP attracts more amoebae, who themselves react by amplifying the aggregation signal by secreting more cAMP.” https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/40/6/798/2400841 View in LinkedIn

CHEMICALS AND PULSES. “Cells in close spatial proximity to one another eventually synchronise, resulting in multiple ‘competing’ pulse centres. As some oscillatory centres accumulate more cells by chance, cAMP concentrations in the surrounding areas increase, causing oscillatory centres to pulse at a faster rate, thereby releasing more cAMP into the environment.” https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/40/6/798/2400841 View in LinkedIn

OSCILLATING UNITS. “The slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a unicellular, multinucleate protist that relies on reactive navigation to explore its environment. The vegetative state of P. polycephalum (known as a plasmodium) is composed of many smaller oscillating units. Each unit oscillates at a frequency dependent upon both the local environment and its interactions with neighboring oscillators.” https://lnkd.in/gxeWCUg View in LinkedIn

VIBRATING SIGNAL. “When the slime mold senses attractants, such as food, via specific binding to receptor molecules presented on the outer membrane surface, the oscillation frequency in the area closest to the food increases, causing cytoplasm to flow toward the attractant. Additionally, binding of attractant molecules to sections of the surface membrane reduces the tension at that section, leading to a difference in internal hydrostatic pressure, such that cytoplasm flows toward the source of attractants.” http://www.pnas.org/content/109/43/17490.full View in LinkedIn

FORMING NEW STRUCTURES. “The chemical waves of aggregating Dictyostelium are an excellent example of collective pattern formation. Waves induce chemotaxis towards their centres and can be either circular or spiral in shape; cells aggregating at the centre of each shape will ultimately form a spore body.” https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/40/6/798/2400841 View in LinkedIn

COMBINATION OF TWO FORMS. “In Physarum, amoebae are typically haploid. Two Physarum amoebae of different mating types combine to create a diploid cell, which then grows by a process involving repeated division without separation of the cytoplasm. The resulting large plasmodium is a single cell with multiple diploid nuclei.” https://ukacc.group.shef.ac.uk/proceedings/control2008/papers/p246.pdf View in LinkedIn

LEARNED BEHAVIOR. “If Physarum polycephalum is subjected to a regular series of shocks, it can learn the pattern and modify its behavior in anticipation of the next stimulus.” https://ukacc.group.shef.ac.uk/proceedings/control2008/papers/p246.pdf View in LinkedIn