Direct transfer of learned behaviour via cell fusion in non-neural organisms

Vogel, David; Dussutour, Audrey

doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.2382

Cited by 58 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Then, the contour of slime mold lost circularity when the first pseudopodia appeared, which also corresponds to the first occurrence of mucus. This phenomenon is typical of the directed digitated growth, or branching phase, described by numerous authors (27,51,59–61). Slime molds developed multiple pseudopodia and did not exhibit any preferential exploration orientation.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

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Morphogenesis and dynamics of slime molds in various environments

Patino-Ramirez

Boussard

Arson

et al. 2019

Preprint

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29Cells, including unicellulars, are highly sensitive to external constraints from their 30 environment. Amoeboid cells change their cell shape during locomotion and in 31 response to external stimuli. Physarum polycephalum is a large multinucleated 32 amoeboid cell that extends and develops pseudopods. In this paper, changes in cell 33 behavior and shape were measured during the exploration of homogenous and non-34 homogenous environments that presented neutral, and nutritive and/or adverse 35 substances. In the first place, we developed a fully automated image analysis 36 method to measure quantitatively changes in both migration and shape. Then we 37 measured various metrics that describe the area covered, the exploration dynamics, 38 the migration rate and the slime mold shape. Our results show that: 1) Not only the 39 nature, but also the spatial distribution of chemical substances affect the exploration 40 behavior of slime molds; 2) Nutritive and adverse substances both slow down the 41 exploration and prevent the formation of pseudopods; and 3) Slime mold placed in 42 an adverse environment preferentially occupies previously explored areas rather 43 than unexplored areas using mucus secretion as a buffer. Our results also show that 44 slime molds migrate at a rate governed by the substrate up until they get within a 45 critical distance to chemical substances. 46 47 Author summary 53 54Physarum polycephalum, also called slime mold, is a giant single-celled organism 55 that can grow to cover several square meters, forming search fronts that are 56 connected to a system of intersecting veins. An original experimental protocol 57 allowed tracking the shape of slime mold placed in homogenous substrates 58 containing an attractant (glucose) or a repellent (salt), or inhomogeneous substrates 59 that contained an attractive spot (glucose), an eccentric slime mold and a repulsive 60 spot (salt) in between. For the first time, the rate of exploration of unexplored areas 61 (primary growth) and the rate of extension in previously explored areas (secondary 62 growth) were rigorously measured, by means of a sophisticated image analysis 63 program. This paper shows that the chemical composition of the substrate has more 64 influence on the morphology and growth dynamics of slime mold than that of 65 concentrated spots of chemicals. It was also found that on a repulsive substrate, 66 slime mold exhibits a bias towards secondary growth, which suggests that the mucus 67 produced during slime mold migration acts as a protective shell in adverse 68 environments. 69 70We characterize slime molds' movement both temporally and spatially, to capture the 126 6 full dynamics. To this aim, we develop a program that automatically analyzes 127 sequences of images to track the areas covered and explored by the slime mold, the 128 slime mold shape, the refinement and secondary growth cycles, as well as the 129 distance to the nutritive spot. 130 131 Results 132 1) Homogeneous environment 133In order to study the influence of the envi...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

“…In the first and second treatments (nutritive environments) we added glucose (100 mM or 200 mM) to the medium. In the third treatment (adverse environment), we added a known repellent (NaCl 100 mM (51)) to the medium. Lastly, in the fourth treatment, the medium remained unchanged (neutral environment i.e.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphogenesis and dynamics of slime molds in various environments

Patino-Ramirez

Boussard

Arson

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…Responsiveness decline and spontaneous recovery [121] Habituation to be exposed to an innocuous repellent and transfer learning to another cell no exposed [122].…”

Section: Habituation [Creating Habits]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Slime mould: The fundamental mechanisms of biological cognition

et al. 2018

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The slime mould Physarum polycephalum has been used in developing unconventional computing devices for in which the slime mould played a role of a sensing, actuating, and computing device. These devices treated the slime mould as an active living substrate, yet it is a self-consistent living creature which evolved over millions of years and occupied most parts of the world, but in any case, that living entity did not own true cognition, just automated biochemical mechanisms. To "rehabilitate" slime mould from the rank of a purely living electronics element to a "creature of thoughts" we are analyzing the cognitive potential of P. polycephalum. We base our theory of minimal cognition of the slime mould on a bottom-up approach, from the biological and biophysical nature of the slime mould and its regulatory systems using frameworks such as Lyon's biogenic cognition, Muller, di Primio-Lengelerś modifiable pathways, Bateson's "patterns that connect" framework, Maturana's autopoietic network, or proto-consciousness and Morgan's Canon.

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“…Automatic effects of association arise strictly from coming into the of a social action. In biological contexts, examples of automatic benefits of association include advantages of increased feeding efficiency (Parrish and Keshet 1999;Koschwanez et al 2011), mobility (Parrish and Keshet 1999), ability to tolerate stressors (Allee 1931; Krause and Ruxton 2002), ability to avoid predators (Kessin et al 1996;Sword et al 2005), sharing of body heat (Gilbert et al 2010), inheritance of territories or shelters (Krause and Ruxton 2002), sharing of information (Vogel and Dussutour 2016), and interspecific competitive ability (Buss 1981). Examples of automatic costs of association include parasite transmission (Davis and Brown 1999), attraction of predators (Krause and Ruxton 2002), decreased feeding efficiency (Krause and Ruxton 2002), break up of coadapted gene complexes (De Boer 1995), and depletion of local resources (Alexander 1974;Krause and Ruxton 2002).…”

Section: Association Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Association theory: a new framework for analyzing social evolution

Gilbert

2017

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The dominant social-evolutionary paradigm implicitly equates social actions and behaviors causing associations by extrapolating from models of social actions to explain behaviors affecting association. This extrapolation occurs when models of helping behavior are applied to explain aggregation or fusion, and when models of discriminatory helping behavior are applied to explain discriminatory segregation or discriminatory rejection. Here, I outline an alternative theoretical approach that explicitly distinguishes a social action as a helping or harming behavior, and an association as the context for a social action. Based on this distinction, I define a list of terms that allows a classification of association phenomena and the conceptual framework necessary to explain their evolution. I apply the resulting theory, which I call “association theory,” to identify a series of steps common to major and minor transitions in social evolution. These steps include the evolution of association, the evolution of differential treatment, the evolution of association preference, and the evolution of genetic kin recognition. I explain how to measure the parameters of association theory and I apply the theory to test Hamilton’s rule. I evaluate the evidence for association theory, including how it resolves anomalies of a former paradigm. Finally, I discuss association theory’s assumptions, and I explain why it may become the dominant framework for analyzing social evolution.

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Direct transfer of learned behaviour via cell fusion in non-neural organisms

Cited by 58 publications

References 24 publications

Morphogenesis and dynamics of slime molds in various environments

Morphogenesis and dynamics of slime molds in various environments

Slime mould: The fundamental mechanisms of biological cognition

Association theory: a new framework for analyzing social evolution

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