Slime mold plasmodia

[Ken Ramos]

Slime mold plasmodia are oftentimes hard to see, however, there are always exceptions. One of them is Physarum polycephalum (the many headed slime mold and the most common). I can only assume this to be one of them shown here. If one likes to or would want to do a study on protoplasmic streaming, P. polycephalum would be the ideal or model cell for that purpose, being actually a “giant multinucleated amoeba.” The protoplasm within runs in 60 sec. cycles fore and aft and can be seen doing so through the use of a microscope at low power settings. The plasmodium presents itself in a variety of colors, that are sometimes determined by the pH of the substrate that they are found on. They can be yellow (most often), white, greyish (as shown here), red and sort of a dirty tan color. Being a model and somewhat intelligent organism, they have been subjected to solving a variety of tasks, such as solving a maze and helping to plan city subways. They have also been subjected to various forms of other stimuli, heat, light, cold, to study the outcomes.



P. polycephalum Zeiss Axio Star @ 25X Canon Powershot G9X 10mm f/2 @ 1/6th sec. ISO 125 LED 3k 6.5W illumination

In this first image note what appears to be a rather dusty background. What we are seeing here is not only an acellular slime mold plasmodium but the fruiting bodies of also a large number of cellular (not acellular) slime mold or social amoeba (not social distancing) Dictyostelium.



P. polycephalum Zeiss Axiostar @ 25X Canon Powershot G9X 10mm f/2 @ 1/6th sec. ISO 125 LED 3k 6.5W illumination

[WalterD]

Thanks for this interesting post, slime molds indeed invite to be explored more often.

[Ken Ramos]

Indeed they do invite one to take a much closer look, their intelligence is uncanny and so little is still yet known about them in their environment, they are still so poorly understood. I have read a small number of papers that delve into the molecular aspects of the creatures but quite most all of them are far above my understanding but yet I find both the acellular and cellular slime molds to be so special and intriguing that I press onwards in my observations of them. Thanks Walter

[Bruce Taylor]

Lovely images of a fascinating subject, Ken. I got interested in slime molds, last year, and learned that you can reliably culture some species simply by putting bark chips on damp paper towel. Keep them covered for a few weeks, in a jar or petri dish and slime molds begin to appear. (A small one, and its spores: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/35471838)

[Ken Ramos]

Thanks Bruce I've been studying slime molds both cellular and acellular for some time now, they are fascinating organisms.