Myxomycetes slime molds

Distribution and properties of GDH s in over 40 species of fungi have been reviewed by LeJohn (23) who has concluded that, whereas higher fungi of the classes Deuteromycetes, Ascomycetes, and Basidiomycetes possess two distinct enzymes, lower fungi, members of the Phycomycetes and Myxomycetes (slime molds), have only one enzyme active with NAD. However, vegetative cell homogenates of Dictyostelium discoideum possess both an enzyme that is active with NAD and NADP, and one active only with NAD 2Ji). 

Plasmodial slime molds (Myxomycetes) are eukaryotic bacteriovores usually occurring in terrestrial ecosystems. Although a few species appear to be confined to the tropics or subtropics, the majority are cosmopolitan and approximately 1000 species have been recognised. In the assimilative... 

Such attack can always be detected afterwards by a mottled or pitted appearance of the cell walls. Also, I do not think that Myxomycetes, the slime molds, were important primary agents in the biochemical stages of coal formation because their preferred habitat is, for example, rotting tree stumps rather than a peaty mass. 

Slime- Mold-like Resembling a Myxomycete plasmodium. 

The fungi include Slime molds (Myxomycetes) algal fungi (Phy-comycetesy, sac fungi (Ascomycetes), and club fungi Basidiomycetes) among others. The yeasts and most of the molds with which food products are associated in some way are of the Ascomycetes variety. 

Dembitsky VM, Rezanka T, Spizek J, Hanus LO (2005) Secondary Metabolites of Slime Molds (Myxomycetes). Phytochemistry 66 747... 

ABSTRACT The Myxomycetes (true slime molds) are an unusual group of primitive organisms that may be assigned to one of the lowest classes of eukaryotes. As their fruit bodies are very small and it is very difficult to collect much quantity of slime molds, few studies have been made on the chemistry of myxomycetes. Cultivation of the plasmodium of myxomycetes in a practical scale for natural products chemistry studies is known only for very limited species such as Physarum polyeephalum. We recently studied the laboratory-cultivation of myxomycetes and several species have been successfully cultured in agar plates. Chemical constituents of cultured plasmodia of several species of myxomycetes of the genera Didymium and Physarum were examined to obtain several sterols, new lipid, or pyrroloiminoquinone derivatives. Previous studies on the chemistry of the secondary metabolites of myxomycetes by other groups are also described here. 

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)... 

Several other examples of indole pigments with bisindolylmaleimide structures have been isolated from the slime mold Arcyria denudata (Tri-chiales, Myxomycetes, Myxomycota). The chemistry and physical... 

Arcyria pigments (bisindolylmaleimides and in-dolo[2,3-a]carbazoles). The tiny fruit bodies of the slime molds Arcyria denudata, A. nutans, and related myxomycetes contain indole pigments of the bisindol-ylmaleinimide type. Parent compounds are the red ar-cyriarubins A, B, and C. Oxidative cyclization in the 2,2 -position furnishes the pale yellow and poorly soluble arcyriaflavins A, B, and C (table I). Indolocarba-zoles of this type are also known as active principles from streptomycetes ( rebeccamycin). 

C20H23NO5, Mr 357.41, red crystals, mp. 150 °C (dihydrate), an optically active tetramic acid derivative from the yellow plasmodia of the slime mold Fuligo septica (Myxomycetes). F. exists in Fuligo as a stable calcium complex. F. is assumed to possess photoreceptor properties and to play a role in the phototaxis and sporulation of the slime mold. 

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). 

In an extremely interesting experiment Oosawa and his colleagues proved that actin from different species indeed can act similarly. All they did was mix actin derived from the slime mold a myxomycete) with myosin from striated rabbit muscle. In purified state the solution of both these proteins showed low specific viscosity. The moment these two proteins were mixed, the specific viscosity shot up (Figure 5.11). Moreover, when ATP was added, the viscosity dropped reminiscent of the previous experiment stated above. This means that aetin and myosin from evolutionarily widely removed species still interacted to give rise to aetomyosin. 

The Acrasiales have the ability to synthesize dienoic acids, but these are different in structure from those of all other protists including the true slime molds or Myxomycetes whose fatty acids do indeed resemble those of soil amoebae (Kom et al., 1965). 

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. 

---