We construct electronic oscillator from acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum. The slime mould oscillator is made of two electrodes connected by a protoplasmic tube of the living slime mould. A protoplasmic tube has an average resistance of 3 MOhm. The tube’s resistance is changing over time due to peristaltic contractile activity of the tube. The resistance of the protoplasmic tube oscil...

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 ...

Slime, the extracellular matrix of Physarum plasmodium, is secreted by the exocytosis of a vesicles that contain a slime precursor. Using an antibody raised against biochemically purified slime, we detected the intracellular localization of the slime vesicle. Slime vesicles are abundant in the advancing front of the plasmodium, as confirmed by electron microscopic observation in two different c...

The slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a well-established model organism within fields of biology, physics and computing. It is also increasingly employed within art and design disciplines, pedagogic practices and public engagement activities as a vehicle for exploring questions of intelligence, agency and emergence. This work was presented at PhysNet 2015.

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) play important roles in regulating the dewaterability of sludge. This study sought to elucidate the influence of EPS on the dewaterability of sludge during bioleaching process. Results showed that, in bioleaching system with the co-inoculation of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans TS6 and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans LX5 (A. t+A. f system), the capillary su...

Adhesion to biomaterial is assumed to be a crucial step in the development of staphylococcal foreign body infections. Production of extracellular slime has major implications for the development and implementation of therapeutic strategies. The effect of extracted slime was investigated on the activity of vancomycin, teicoplanin, linezolid, quinupristin/dalfopristin, rifampicin and ranbezolid a...

The nucleotide sequence reported for the Dictyostelium discoideum ceramidase is available on the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ). Ceramidases (CDases) are currently classified into three categories (acid, neutral and alkaline) based on their optimal pHs and primary structures. Here, we report the first exception to this rule. We cloned the CDase cDNA, consisting of 2142 nucleotides encoding 714 a...

Slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a large single cell visible by unaided eye. We design a slime mould implementation of a tactile hair, where the slime mould responds to repeated deflection of hair by an immediate high-amplitude spike and a prolonged increase in amplitude and width of its oscillation impulses. We demonstrate that signal-to-noise ratio of the Physarum tactile hair sensor aver...

on slime polysaccharide A, whereas depolymerases associated with phages 6, 7, 9, and 10, like pseudomonas phage 2, hydrolyzed slime polysaccharide B. None of the depolymerases was active on slime polysaccharide C. Despite exhaustive purification, depolymerase activity was found to band with the phage particles at a density of 1.49 to 1.51 g/mI in a density gradient composed to cesium chloride. ...

Physarum polycephalum is a macroscopic single celled plasmodial slime mould. We employ plasmodial phototactic responses to construct laboratory prototypes of NOT and NAND logical gates with electrical inputs/outputs and optical coupling; the slime mould plays dual roles of computing device and electrical conductor. Slime mould logical gates are fault tolerant and resettable. The results present...