Slime Mould

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Slime Moulds have gotten a lot of attention as a way to optimise transport maps, but what are they???

What is a Slime Mould?

First they are NOT fungi - although for a long time, they were thought to be fungi because their life cycle resemble each other

They are protists

What is a protist?

There are [3 groups http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/protista/slimemolds.html] of organisms called slime moulds, but they do not share a common ancestor (a clade) 1. Plasmodial slime molds = giant cells, single cells with thousands of nuclei fused flagellated cells 2. Cellular slime molds = mostly found as separate single-celled amoeboid protists, but can swarm with chemical signals 3. Labyrinthulomycota, called slime moulds, but are not related to 1 and 2

Resources

  • dictybase where you can find genomes, protocols and other resources