Physarum attraction: Why slime mold behaves as cats do?

Adamatzky, Andrew; Costello, Ben de Lacy

doi:10.4161/cib.19924

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Such protoplasmic arrangements qualitatively support equivalent chemoattractive potential of wild type and Agrobacterium -derived hairy roots. While most studies on P. polycephalum chemotaxis employ diffusion of active compounds into a substrate shared with plasmodium, we previously found that propagation toward wild type V. officinalis plant root can occur along gradients of volatile attractants (Adamatzky and Costello, 2012 ), and confirmed that attraction to hairy root occurs via similar mechanisms (Video S1 and Figure S3 ).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 68%

Plant hairy root cultures as plasmodium modulators of the slime mold emergent computing substrate Physarum polycephalum

et al. 2015

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Roots of the medicinal plant Valeriana officinalis are well-studied for their various biological activities. We applied genetically transformed V. officinalis root biomass to exert control of Physarum polycephalum, an amoeba-based emergent computing substrate. The plasmodial stage of the P. polycephalum life cycle constitutes a single, multinucleate cell visible by unaided eye. The plasmodium modifies its network of oscillating protoplasm in response to spatial configurations of attractants and repellents, a behavior that is interpreted as biological computation. To program the computing behavior of P. polycephalum, a diverse and sustainable library of plasmodium modulators is required. Hairy roots produced by genetic transformation with Agrobacterium rhizogenes are a metabolically stable source of bioactive compounds. Adventitious roots were induced on in vitro V. officinalis plants following infection with A. rhizogenes. A single hairy root clone was selected for massive propagation and the biomass was characterized in P. polycephalum chemotaxis, maze-solving, and electrical activity assays. The Agrobacterium-derived roots of V. officinalis elicited a positive chemotactic response and augmented maze-solving behavior. In a simple plasmodium circuit, introduction of hairy root biomass stimulated the oscillation patterns of slime mold's surface electrical activity. We propose that manipulation of P. polycephalum with the plant root culture platform can be applied to the development of slime mold microfluidic devices as well as future models for engineering the plant rhizosphere.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 68%

Plant hairy root cultures as plasmodium modulators of the slime mold emergent computing substrate Physarum polycephalum

et al. 2015

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“…We should also keep in mind a possibility of stimulation with volatiles and light. Based on our previous experience with slime mould [15,3] the compounds will be selected to represent four chemical classes -aromatic, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and fatty acid derivatives established in the evolution of floral and insect volatiles.…”

Section: Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fungal architecture

Adamatzky¹,

Ayres²,

Belotti³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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As one of the primary consumers of environmental resource, the building industry faces unprecedented challenges in needing to reduce the environmental impact of current consumption practices. This applies to both the construction of the built environment and resource consumption during its occupation and use. Where incremental improvements to current practices can be realised, the net benefits are often far outstripped by the burgeoning demands of rapidly increasing population growth and urbanisation. Against the backdrop of this grand societal challenge, it is necessary to explore approaches that envision a paradigm shift in how material is sourced, processed and assembled to address the magnitude of these challenges in a truly sustainable way, and which can even provide added value. We propose to develop a structural substrate by using live fungal mycelium, functionalise the substrate with nanoparticles and polymers to make a mycelium-based electronics, implement sensorial fusion and decision making in the fungal electronics and to growing monolithic buildings from the functionalised fungal substrate. Fungal buildings will self-grow, build, and repair themselves subject to substrate supplied, use natural adaptation to the environment, sense all what human can sense.

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“…Valerian root dominates in the hierarchy of chemoattractive forces and of Physarum preferences [4,8]. Possible molecular mechanisms linking the sedative activity of valerian and its chemoattraction via relaxation of contractile activities of slime mold are outlined in [10]. The contractile activity of plasmodium is closely associated with its electrical activity.…”

Section: Chemical Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Would-Be Nervous System Made from a Slime Mold

Adamatzky

2015

Artificial Life

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The slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a huge single cell that has proved to be a fruitful material for designing novel computing architectures. The slime mold is capable of sensing tactile, chemical, and optical stimuli and converting them to characteristic patterns of its electrical potential oscillations. The electrical responses to stimuli may propagate along protoplasmic tubes for distances exceeding tens of centimeters, as impulses in neural pathways do. A slime mold makes decisions about its propagation direction based on information fusion from thousands of spatially extended protoplasmic loci, similarly to a neuron collecting information from its dendritic tree. The analogy is distant yet inspiring. We speculate on whether alternative-would-be-nervous systems can be developed and practically implemented from the slime mold. We uncover analogies between the slime mold and neurons, and demonstrate that the slime mold can play the roles of primitive mechanoreceptors, photoreceptors, and chemoreceptors; we also show how the Physarum neural pathways develop. The results constituted the first step towards experimental laboratory studies of nervous system implementation in slime molds.

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Physarum attraction: Why slime mold behaves as cats do?

Cited by 14 publications

References 13 publications

Plant hairy root cultures as plasmodium modulators of the slime mold emergent computing substrate Physarum polycephalum

Plant hairy root cultures as plasmodium modulators of the slime mold emergent computing substrate Physarum polycephalum

Fungal architecture

A Would-Be Nervous System Made from a Slime Mold

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