Mycetozoa is a

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

grouping of

slime mold Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formation of spores. Spores are often produced in macroscopic mul ...

s. It was originally thought to be a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...

clade, but recently it was discovered that protostelia are a polyphyletic group within Conosa.

Classification

It can be divided into dictyostelid, myxogastrid, and

protostelid Protosteliomycetes/Protosteliales (ICBN) or Protostelea/Protostelia/Protosteliida (ICZN) is a grouping of slime molds from the phylum Mycetozoa. The name can vary depending upon the taxon used. Other names include Protostelea, Protostelia, and Pr ...

groups. The mycetozoan groups all fit into the unikont supergroup

Amoebozoa Amoebozoa is a major taxonomic group containing about 2,400 described species of amoeboid protists, often possessing blunt, fingerlike, lobose pseudopods and tubular mitochondrial cristae. In traditional and currently no longer supported c ...

, whereas most other slime molds fit into various bikont groups ( fonticulids are opisthokonts).

Utility in research

The dictyostelids are used as examples of

cell communication In biology, cell signaling (cell signalling in British English) or cell communication is the ability of a cell to receive, process, and transmit signals with its environment and with itself. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellular ...

and differentiation, and may provide insights into how

multicellular organisms A multicellular organism is an organism that consists of more than one cell, in contrast to unicellular organism. All species of animals, land plants and most fungi are multicellular, as are many algae, whereas a few organisms are partially uni ...

develop. '' Physarum polycephalum'' are useful for studying

cytoplasmic streaming Cytoplasmic streaming, also called protoplasmic streaming and cyclosis, is the flow of the cytoplasm inside the cell, driven by forces from the cytoskeleton. It is likely that its function is, at least in part, to speed up the transport of mol ...

. They have also been used to study the biochemical events that surround

mitosis In cell biology, mitosis () is a part of the cell cycle in which replicated chromosomes are separated into two new nuclei. Cell division by mitosis gives rise to genetically identical cells in which the total number of chromosomes is maintai ...

, since all of the nuclei in a medium-sized plasmodium divide in synchrony. It has been observed that they can find their way through mazes by spreading out and choosing the shortest path, an interesting example of information processing without a

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes ...

. Myxomycete plasmodia have also been used to study the genetics of asexual cell fusion. The giant size of the plasmodial cells allows for easy evaluation of complete or partial cell fusion. In 2006, researchers at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

and the University of Kobe reported that they had built a six-legged robot whose movement was remotely controlled by a ''Physarum'' slime mold. The mold directed the

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

into a dark corner most similar to its natural habitat. Slime molds are sometimes studied in advanced mathematics courses. Slime mold aggregation is a natural process that can be approximated with

partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be solved for, similarly to ...

Meiosis

Members of the Mycetozoa group are able to undergo

sexual reproduction Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete ( haploid reproductive cells, such as a sperm or egg cell) with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote th ...

either by heterothallic or homothallic mating. An analysis of

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately ...

-related genes in the ''

Dictyostelium discoideum ''Dictyostelium discoideum'' is a species of soil-dwelling amoeba belonging to the phylum Amoebozoa, infraphylum Mycetozoa. Commonly referred to as slime mold, ''D. discoideum'' is a eukaryote that transitions from a collection of unicellular ...

'' genome revealed that 36 of the 44 genes tested were present in the genome. One gene, ''

Spo11 Spo11 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''SPO11'' gene. Spo11, in a complex with mTopVIB, creates double strand breaks to initiate meiotic recombination. Its active site contains a tyrosine which ligates and dissociates with DNA to pr ...

'', was absent in the Mycetozoa, raising questions about the assumed universal role of ''Spo11'' as an initiator of meiosis. File:Slime Mold DP2.jpg, Slime mold on lawn, USA. Trail of movement can be seen. File:Fuligo septica bl1.JPG, '' Fuligo septica''. File:Brefeldia maxima plasmodium on wood.jpg, ''

Brefeldia maxima ''Brefeldia maxima'' is a species of non-parasitic plasmodial slime mold, and a member of the class Myxomycetes. It is commonly known as the tapioca slime mold because of its peculiar pure white, tapioca pudding-like appearance. A common specie ...

'' on a tree stump in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. File:08 04 morphological concepts, orders of Myxomycota (M. Piepenbring).png, Sporangia types in the

s and in the myxogastrid groups (

Echinosteliales The Echinosteliales are an order of Amoebozoa in the class Myxomycetes. It contains two families, the Clastodermataceae and the Echinosteliaceae. Echinosteliales was circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a ...

Liceales Liceales (also Liceida) is an order of Amoebozoa Amoebozoa is a major taxonomic group containing about 2,400 described species of amoeboid protists, often possessing blunt, fingerlike, lobose pseudopods and tubular mitochondrial cristae. In ...

Trichiales Trichiales (synonymous with Trichiida) is an order of slime moulds in the phylum Amoebozoa. Trichiales is one of five orders in the group Myxomycetes (also called Myxogastria), or the true plasmodial slime molds. It is also currently categorized ...

Stemonitales Stemonitidales is an order of Amoebozoan slime mold Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formatio ...

Physarales Physarales is an order of Amoebozoa in the class Myxomycetes. It contains three families, the Didymiaceae, the Lamprodermataceae, and the Physaraceae. Physarales was circumscribed by Thomas Huston Macbride Thomas Huston Macbride (July 31, 1 ...

)

References

External links

Slime Molds
from abc.net.au
Hunting Slime Molds
from ''

Smithsonian Magazine ''Smithsonian'' is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' mag ...

'' *
dictyBase
is an online informatics resource for Dictyostelium, a cellular slime mould.
nomen.eumycetozoa.com
is an online nomenclatural information system of slime moulds (Myxomycetes, Dictyostelids and Protostelids) of the world.
Photo gallerySlime Mold Photos
Life cycle of Reticularia lycoperdon at MushooMania.com.
Video footage of common slime moulds.
{{Authority control Infraphyla