Myxomycetes life cycle

The Myxomycetes (true slime molds) are an unusual group of primitive organisms that may be assigned to one of the lowest classes of eukaryote [2]. In the assimilative phase of their life cycle (Figure 1)... 

IMyxomycete pigments. In the life cycles of genuine slime molds (Myxomycetes, Myxomycotina) amoeboid mobile plasma masses without cell walls (plas-modia) develop into fruit bodies (sporangia) the spores of which send out myxamoeba or myxoflagellates which finally fuse to give new plasmodia. Not only the... 

Mr 453.49, yellow powder, [a]o +7.2° (CH3OH). A pentaene pigment from plasmodia of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum. P. and related compounds appear to play a role as photoreceptors in the life cycle of this myxomycete (see also fuligoru-bin A). 

Most natural phenomena are rhythmic, and, in those which appear not to be rhythmic, the rhythm may be hidden or disrupted by other forces. The movements of the planets, the seasons of the year, the life cycles of plants and animals, the beat of the heart, the streaming of protoplasm, and the pulsations of a slime mold are all rhythmic. Opposition to the idea of rhythm in natural phenomena should be replaced by skepticism when absence of rhythm is claimed. If natural phenomena which constitute the environment of organisms recur rhythmically, as do heat and cold, rain and drought, short days and long days, cosmic radiation, etc., protoplasm would, in such an environment, inevitably develop rhythms in growth, reproduction, and metabolism, and these would lead to other rhythms as, for example, in movement. Among rhythmic activities is the shuttle flow of the protoplasm of myxomycetes its cause, the pulsation of the plas-modium, is likewise rhythmic. 

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