Slime mold uses an externalized spatial “memory” to navigate in complex environments

Reid, Chris; Latty, Tanya; Dussutour, Audrey; Beekman, Madeleine

doi:10.1073/pnas.1215037109

Cited by 191 publications

(178 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Many microorganisms possess complex communication mechanisms that allow them to interact with one another [35]; now we can add the true slime moulds to the list. In a precedent study, we showed that cells leave an extracellular slime while exploring their environment, and use it to avoid areas previously explored and navigate in a complex environment [17]. Here we show that cells while feeding also leave chemicals in the environment, which are attractive to congeners.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…It crawls around forming extended pseudopods in order to search for food. Slime moulds have been known for decades for their amazing abilities such as finding their way in a maze [15], solving nutritional challenge [16], avoiding traps [17] and anticipating periodic events [18]. These are just a few examples of our growing understanding of these unusual organisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[21,22]) and Australian strain (e.g. [16,17]). We first quantified the degree of variability in their behavioural repertoire, focusing on exploration and foraging behaviour.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phenotypic variability in unicellular organisms: from calcium signalling to social behaviour

et al. 2015

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Historically, research has focused on the mean and often neglected the variance. However, variability in nature is observable at all scales: among cells within an individual, among individuals within a population and among populations within a species. A fundamental quest in biology now is to find the mechanisms that underlie variability. Here, we investigated behavioural variability in a unique unicellular organism, Physarum polycephalum. We combined experiments and models to show that variability in cell signalling contributes to major differences in behaviour underpinning some aspects of social interactions. First, following thousands of cells under various contexts, we identified distinct behavioural phenotypes: 'slowregular-social', 'fast-regular-social' and 'fast-irregular-asocial'. Second, coupling chemical analysis and behavioural assays we found that calcium signalling is responsible for these behavioural phenotypes. Finally, we show that differences in signalling and behaviour led to alternative social strategies. Our results have considerable implications for our understanding of the emergence of variability in living organisms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phenotypic variability in unicellular organisms: from calcium signalling to social behaviour

et al. 2015

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“…The cell forms pseudopods and creeps along various surfaces at a maximum speed of 4 cm per hour. P. polycephalum demonstrates amazing abilities, such as finding its way through a maze [13], building a smart network [14], solving complex nutritional challenges [15], avoiding being trapped [16] and anticipating periodic events [17]. In addition, P. polycephalum exhibits a form of self-signalling and shows chemoattractive movements towards other individuals [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Vogel

Dussutour

2016

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Cell fusion is a fundamental phenomenon observed in all eukaryotes. Cells can exchange resources such as molecules or organelles during fusion. In this paper, we ask whether a cell can also transfer an adaptive response to a fusion partner. We addressed this question in the unicellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum, in which cell-cell fusion is extremely common. Slime moulds are capable of habituation, a simple form of learning, when repeatedly exposed to an innocuous repellent, despite lacking neurons and comprising only a single cell. In this paper, we present a set of experiments demonstrating that slime moulds habituated to a repellent can transfer this adaptive response by cell fusion to individuals that have never encountered the repellent. In addition, we show that a slime mould resulting from the fusion of a minority of habituated slime moulds and a majority of unhabituated ones still shows an adaptive response to the repellent. Finally, we further reveal that fusion must last a certain time to ensure an effective transfer of the behavioural adaptation between slime moulds. Our results provide strong experimental evidence that slime moulds exhibit transfer of learned behaviour during cell fusion and raise the possibility that similar phenomena may occur in other cell-cell fusion systems.

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“…Our work builds on the growing body of evidence suggesting that slime moulds are capable of making complex decisions that integrate information from a variety of sources (Latty and Beekman, 2009, 2011aDussutour et al, 2010;Reid et al, 2012. Here, we show that, despite being little more than giant amoebae, slime moulds use departure heuristics similar to those used by many animals, including humans.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Slime moulds use heuristics based on within-patch experience to decide when to leave

Latty

Beekman

2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Animals foraging in patchy, non-renewing or slowly renewing environments must make decisions about how long to remain within a patch. Organisms can use heuristics ('rules of thumb') based on available information to decide when to leave the patch. Here, we investigated proximate patch-departure heuristics in two species of giant, brainless amoeba: the slime moulds Didymium bahiense and Physarum polycephalum. We explicitly tested the importance of information obtained through experience by eliminating chemosensory cues of patch quality. In P. polycephalum, patch departure was influenced by the consumption of high, and to a much lesser extent low, quality food items such that engulfing a food item increased patchresidency time. Physarum polycephalum also tended to forage for longer in darkened, 'safe' patches. In D. bahiense, engulfment of any food item increased patch residency irrespective of that food item's quality. Exposure to light had no effect on the patch-residency time of D. bahiense. Given that these organisms lack a brain, our results illustrate how the use of simple heuristics can give the impression that individuals make sophisticated foraging decisions.

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Slime mold uses an externalized spatial “memory” to navigate in complex environments

Cited by 191 publications

References 35 publications

Phenotypic variability in unicellular organisms: from calcium signalling to social behaviour

Phenotypic variability in unicellular organisms: from calcium signalling to social behaviour

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

Slime moulds use heuristics based on within-patch experience to decide when to leave

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