What are Slime molds?
Slime moulds are ‘fungus like protists’. This group is further classified into “cellular” and “acellular” slime molds. Slime molds exhibit characteristics of both fungus and protozoans. Both grow in moist soil or decaying plant matter often white, yellow, or red in color.
What are plasmodial Slime molds?
In plasmodial slime molds, vegetative state is multi nucleate, diploid, amoeboid coenocytic mass called plasmodium.
Lets divide the life cycle into simple steps for better understanding
Steps in Life cycle of plasmodial Slime mould
Step 1: large multinucelate diploid cell that glides along engulfing food particles including microorganisms such as bacteria
Step 2: On maturity, plasmodium has a net like appearance
Step 3: Formation of sporangia
Sporangia arise from the basal net like plasmodial mass. Sporangia consist of a stalk and head region. Many diploid nucleus moves to the head region.
Step 4: Diploid (2n) nucleus undergoes meiosis forming haploid (1n) spores. Spores are thick walled and highly resistant to extreme environment. It can act like a resting spore.
Step 5: Spore Germination on return of favorable condition
Depending on the environment; spore can geminate in two ways
Step 5 a: forming swarm cells when there is enough moisture. These are biflagellated motile cells.
Step 5 b: or amoeboid cell formation in dry condition
Step 6: fusion of pair of Amoeboid cell /or swarm cell (withdraws flagella at the time of fusion)
Step 7: The resulting diploid zygote undergoes mitosis to form multinucleate plasmodium. It later forms a large super cell with many diploid nuclei.
