What is the life cycle of slime mold?

Figure 23.2B. 1: Plasmodial slime mold life cycle: Haploid spores develop into amoeboid or flagellated forms, which are then fertilized to form a diploid, multinucleate mass called a plasmodium. This plasmodium is net-like and, upon maturation, forms a sporangium on top of a stalk.

What is a cellular slime mold in biology?

Cellular slime molds, a.k.a. sorocarpic amoebae (Brown et al., 2011; Brown and Silberman, 2012; Spiegel et al., 2004; Olive, 1975), are amoeboid organisms in which individual amoebae, upon starvation or some other signal, aggregate to form a multicellular fruiting body, or sorocarp, containing walled, dormant spores.

What two phases are found in the life cycle of slime molds?

Strictly speaking, there is no alternation of two distinct generations in the life cycle of true slime molds. The diploid Plasmodium is the sporophyte. Along with other diploid structures such as the zygote, sporangia and the young diploid spores, it constitutes the sporophyte generation or diplophase.

How is cellular slime mold contracted?

Plasmodial slime molds, like Physarum shown here, are basically enormous single cells with thousands of nuclei. They are formed when individual flagellated cells swarm together and fuse. The result is one large bag of cytoplasm with many diploid nuclei.

What is the life cycle for mold?

The life cycle of mold includes four main phases: hyphal growth, spore formation, spore dispersal, and spore germination . However, these phases are dependent on the environment.

Is slime mold an eukaryote?

What are the Similarities Between Slime Molds and Fungi? Both slime molds and fungi are eukaryotic organisms. They show a heterotrophic mode of nutrition Furthermore, both groups show both sexual and asexual modes of reproduction. Additionally, they form sporangia. Also, both possess flagellated cells.

Do slime molds release spores?

The fruiting bodies of cellular slime molds release spores , each of which becomes a single amoeboid cell when it germinates. Cellular slime molds are rarely visible to the naked eye.

How does slime mold reproduce?

Under favorable conditions, plasmodial slime molds reproduce by forming a reproductive stalk containing spores. This reproductive stalk looks spherical or even popsicle-like on top. When the time is right, these stalks will release the spores and new slime molds will proliferate.