Substrate and cell fusion influence on slime mold network dynamics.

ABSTRACT: The acellular slime mold Physarum polycephalum provides an excellent model to study network formation, as its network is remodelled constantly in response to mass gain/loss and environmental conditions. How slime molds networks are built and fuse to allow for efficient exploration and adaptation to environmental conditions is still not fully understood. Here, we characterize the network organization of slime molds exploring homogeneous neutral, nutritive and adverse environments. We developed a fully automated image analysis method to extract the network topology and followed the slime molds before and after fusion. Our results show that: (1) slime molds build sparse networks with thin veins in a neutral environment and more compact networks with thicker veins in a nutritive or adverse env

SUBMITTER: Patino-Ramirez F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7810851 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature