When a slime mold mass or mound is physically separated, the cells find their way back to re-unite. Studies on Physarum polycephalum have even shown an ability to learn and predict periodic unfavorable conditions in laboratory experiments.
Slime molds may move slowly, but they excite scientists by their ability to get a lot done with very little. Slime molds don't have legs or any appendages. They eat bacteria and tiny fungi. And they move just by changing their shape.
To ensure genetic diversity, each slime mold sex cell can only fuse with a sex cell that has completely different variants of genes than its own. If you calculate all the possible combinations of genes and sex cells, you will find that Physarum have more than 500 different sexes." (ZooGoer 33(2) 2004.
Not only is slime mold harmless, it's also edible! In parts of Mexico it is gathered and scrambled like eggs in a dish they call “caca de luna” but we don't recommend that you eat it. Slime molds are not actually molds, fungi, plant, animal or bacteria—they consume fungi and bacteria on decaying plant material.
This class is commonly referred to as the acellular slime molds because the plasmodium (Figs. 7-8) stage of the lifecycle is not composed of many cells. Instead it is essentially a single, multinucleate cell. As in the myxamoebae stage, the plasmodium is also an assimilative stage that consumes food by phagocytosis.
Slime molds cause very little damage. The plasmodium ingests bacteria, fungal spores, and maybe other smaller protozoa. Their ingestion of food is one reason slime molds are not considered to be fungi. These structures contain the spores.
Sexual reproduction is most likely to take place in very damp conditions. In drier conditions, cellular slime molds enter an asexual reproductive phase. Haploid ameboid cells cease feeding and clump together to form a slug-like pseudoplasmodium. From this forms a stalked fruiting body.
This species is not known to cause sickness in humans, although the many dusty spores can irritate people with allergies, asthma, or other respiratory conditions. Although it can be unsightly in a flower garden, it is fairly impossible to get rid of this slime mold.
Slime molds have characteristics of both molds and protozoa. Under certain conditions, the slime mold exists as masses of cytoplasm, similar to amoebae. It moves over rotting logs or leaves and feeds by phagocytosis. The amoeba stage is called the plasmodium, which has many nuclei.
Lesson Summary
They were once confused as molds because they share some of the characteristics of fungus (cells are larger than bacteria, don't have chlorophyll, and do form clusters of spores at the top of stalked structures called sporangia), but slime molds lack chitin in their cell walls and they move.Slime molds cause very little damage. The plasmodium ingests bacteria, fungal spores, and maybe other smaller protozoa. Their ingestion of food is one reason slime molds are not considered to be fungi. These structures contain the spores.
Algae, singular alga, members of a group of predominantly aquatic photosynthetic organisms of the kingdom Protista. Algae have many types of life cycles, and they range in size from microscopic Micromonas species to giant kelps that reach 60 metres (200 feet) in length.
Fungus-like protists are molds. Molds are absorptive feeders, found on decaying organic matter. They resemble fungi and reproduce with spores as fungi do. Examples of fungus-like protists include slime molds and water molds.
Originally, they were considered fungi but are now classified as protists. The life cycle of slime molds is very similar to that of fungi.
Fungus-like protists are molds. For example, they have cell walls made of cellulose, whereas fungi have cell walls made of chitin. Like other protists, they have complicated life cycles with both asexual and sexual reproduction. They are motile during some stages of their life cycle.
Types of Slime Molds
Cellular slime molds remain as unicellular 'slug-like' amoeboid protists for much of their life, crawling through leaf matter and decaying matter on the forest floor. However, they gather into a pseudoplasmodium, a group of plasmodium without actual protoplasmic fusion, to reproduce.Slime molds lack chitin in their cell walls. Hence they are not Fungi. Spores produced in slime molds have cellulose in their cell walls which is not present in Fungal cell walls.
These organisms exhibit properties of both fungi and protists. The slime molds and the water molds are members of this group. They all obtain energy by decomposing organic materials, and as a result, are important for recycling nutrients. They can be brightly colored and live in cool, moist, dark habitats.
Class Phycomycota: The Water Molds
Oomycota or oomycetes, which are also known as water molds, are a group of filamentous protists that physically resemble fungi. Water molds produce asexual spores, called zoospores, which use surface water (such as rain or dew on plants) for movement.They feed on microorganisms that live in any type of dead plant material. They contribute to the decomposition of dead vegetation, and feed on bacteria, yeasts, and fungi. For this reason, slime molds are usually found in soil, lawns, and on the forest floor, commonly on deciduous logs.
While slime molds are definitely unattractive, they are not harmful. Slime molds often appear in the spring due to the fact that they get their moisture from the air and feed on the nutrients from whatever it is growing on, which is commonly your mulch beds.
There is the water mold group and the slime mold group, both which function as ecological decomposers. Water molds get their name because these funguslike protists live in water or in moist soil. Their role in the ecosystem is as decomposers of organic material, often dead and decaying matter.
Fungus-like protists are molds. Molds are absorptive feeders, found on decaying organic matter. They resemble fungi and reproduce with spores as fungi do. Examples of fungus-like protists include slime molds and water molds.
There are two large groups: the cellular slime molds (dictyostelids), such as Dictyostelium, and the acellular slime molds (myxomycetes), such as Physarum.
Fungus-like Protists
They also have cell walls and reproduce by forming spores, just like fungi. Fungus-like protists usually do not move, but a few develop movement at some point in their lives. Two major types of fungus-like protists are slime molds and water molds.Slime molds thrive where conditions are moist, so the easiest way to remove it is to let the area dry out. Rake up slime molds in garden mulch to expose the organism to drying air. You can also just scrape up the stuff, but likely it will be back.
Describe plasmodia slime molds. When food or water is scarce for a plasmodia slime mold, what happens? It stops growing and develop structures which produce spores. Describe cellular slime molds.
Mold is found everywhere and can grow on almost any substance when moisture is present. They reproduce by spores, which are carried by air currents. When spores land on a moist surface suitable for life, they begin to grow. Mold is normally found indoors at levels which do not affect most healthy individuals.
When all is well, the slime mold thrives as a single-celled organism, but when food is scarce, it combines forces with its brethren, and grows. Then, once the mass is formed, the cells reconfigure, changing their shape and function to form stalks, which produce bulbs called fruiting bodies.
The slime moulds are also called as consumer and decomposer. Slime moulds are organisms, that use spores to reproduce.
