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Life cycle of a typical myxomycete. A, Spore. B, Germinating spore. C, Uninucleate amoeboid stage, with (right) or without (left) Xagella. D, Microcyst. E–F, Fusion of two compatible amoebae to produce a single cell. G, Zygote. H, Early plasmodium. I, Sclerotium. J, Portion of a mature plasmodium. K, Beginning of sporulation. L, Mature fruiting body with spores still enclosed. (Adapted from Stephenson and Stempen 1994)
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The myxomycetes (plasmodial slime molds or myxogastrids) are a group of eukaryotic microorganisms usually present and sometimes
abundant in terrestrial ecosystems. Evidence from molecular studies suggests that the myxomycetes have a significant evolutionary
history. However, due to the fragile nature of the fruiting body, fossil records of the grou...
Similar publications
Myxomycetes (plasmodial slime molds or myxogastrids) are a group of eukaryotic microorganisms usually present and sometimes
abundant in terrestrial ecosystems. Because they produce aerial spore-bearing structures that resemble those of certain fungi
and also typically occur in some of the same types of ecological situations as fungi, myxomycetes ha...
Citations
... According to Stephenson et al. (2008), C. morchella should be more abundant in Amazonian forests than in Central America. In Brazil, in addition to the Amazon region (Acre, Amazonas, and Roraima), the equatorial climate zone, the species has records in Bahia, Paraíba, Pernambuco, and Sergipe, in areas of the Northeast Atlantic Forest, in the northeast tropical climatic zone (Cavalcanti et al. 2008;Maia et al., 2015). ...
Ceratiomyxa morchella, characteristic of the Neotropical myxobiota, was first recorded in Brazil four decades ago in the northern region of the country. Since then, it has a known distribution only in the North and Northeast regions, occurring in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes. Collecting carried out in a fragment of Mixed Ombrophylous Forest in the southern region of the country expands the known area of occurrence of the species and increases to 112 the number of species that make up the myxobiota of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
... This is consistent with the fact that Leo. fragilis rarely occurs in highly arid and tropical forests [50]. Physarum viride, D. squamulosum and H. serpula could fruit on at least four kinds of substrates (Table 7), demonstrating a more pronounced fruiting capability. ...
Three Parallel Rivers is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. However, the research on myxomycetes diversity is scarce in this area. Random sampling was used to investigate myxomycetes’ diversity and distribution characteristics in this area. One hundred and seventeen species, including three varieties, were obtained, belonging to 28 genera, nine families, and six orders, with Arcyria cinerea and Physarum viride being the dominant species. Moreover, four species and one variety were first reported in China. Twenty-six species and one variety were first reported in Yunnan Province. The species’ most commonly utilized substrate for fruiting bodies was decaying wood, and Cribraria was the dominant genus. The species diversity was most abundant in mixed broadleaf-conifer forests. Species similarity between coniferous and broad-leaved forests was much higher than the pairwise comparison of other forest types. NMDS analysis shows that substrate and forest types had insignificant effects on myxomycetes communities, while river valley had a significant effect. The myxomycetes community similarity between river valleys is unrelated to geographical proximity.
... The distribution of myxomycetes seems to be limited not only by climate and vegetation on a global scale but also by ecological differences in particular habitats, such as forest types and substrate types on a local scale (Stephenson et al. 2008). Several studies have shown that differences in vegetation types and moisture gradients affect myxomycetes' distribution along elevation gradients in tropics (Schnitller and Stephenson 2000;Dagamac et al. 2014;Rojas et al. 2016), subtropics (Novozhilov et al. 2018), and temperate zone (Takahashi and Harakon 2010). ...
Although myxomycetes are globally distributed in terrestrial ecosystems, studies of their local distribution along an elevation gradient remain few and ambiguous. The present study was seasonally carried out with field surveys for collecting fruiting bodies in five coniferous forests at elevations ranging from 679 to 2135 m in a mountainous region of Central Japan. A total of 1254 records on coniferous dead wood represented 50 taxa belonging to 21 genera. Myxomycete diversity decreased with increasing elevation and was higher in summer than in autumn. Five communities at different elevation sites were ordinated using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). The four communities in lower elevation pine forests were associated with the elevational gradient and separated from a subalpine coniferous forest community. Four species, Lamproderma columbinum, Cribraria macrocarpa, Physarum atroviolaceum, and Arcyria monticola, specifically inhabited the subalpine in the autumn. The community structure of myxomycetes revealed elevational differences that affected species occurrence in a temperate local region of Central Japan.
... The choice fell on Physarum polycephalum, spe-cifically the Australian strain because of its faster growth rate, larger ramification size and extensive scientific literature confirming its safety for human health. (Stephenson, S. L., Schnittler, M. and Novozhilov, Y., 2008;Barnett, 2008). ...
El artículo explora el campo del biodiseño demostrando, a través de una revisión de la literatura científica y la ilustración de los experimentos de investigación de diseño desarrollados por los autores, cómo el diseño puede diseñar artefactos híbridos instruyendo a la naturaleza en la dirección del pensamiento de diseño.
... Myxomycetes are a group of eukaryotes belonging to Amoebozoa, characterized by a distinctive life cycle, including the plasmodium and fruit body stages. Most myxomycetes species are thought to have extensive distribution ranges [1]. They can feed on bacteria, algae, fungal spores, hyphae, and other organic materials [2]. ...
Background
Myxomycetes are a group of eukaryotes belonging to Amoebozoa, which are characterized by a distinctive life cycle, including the plasmodium stage and fruit body stage. Plasmodia are all found to be associated with bacteria. However, the information about bacteria diversity and composition in different plasmodia was limited. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the bacterial diversity of plasmodia from different myxomycetes species and reveal the potential function of plasmodia-associated bacterial communities.
Results
The bacterial communities associated with the plasmodia of six myxomycetes ( Didymium iridis, Didymium squamulosum, Diderma hemisphaericum, Lepidoderma tigrinum, Fuligo leviderma, and Physarum melleum ) were identified by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The six plasmodia harbored 38 to 52 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that belonged to 7 phyla, 16 classes, 23 orders, 40 families, and 53 genera. The dominant phyla were Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. Most OTUs were shared among the six myxomycetes, while unique bacteria in each species only accounted for a tiny proportion of the total OTUs.
Conclusions
Although each of the six myxomycetes plasmodia had different bacterial community compositions, a high similarity was observed in the plasmodia-associated bacterial communities' functional composition. The high enrichment for gram-negative (> 90%) and aerobic (> 99%) bacteria in plasmodia suggest that myxomycetes may positively recruit certain kinds of bacteria from the surrounding environment.
... The myxomycetes (also called myxogastrids) are a group of eumycetozoans found in terrestrial ecosystems. Members of the group were once considered to be fungi because they occur in many of the same microhabitats as fungi and the fruiting bodies of some species superficially resemble those of certain fungi (Stephenson et al. 2008). However, the fruiting bodies of fungi and myxomycetes are totally different in structure. ...
... Among protists, myxomycetes are one of the least studied groups in the field of molecular microbial ecology. Virtually all published studies of myxomycete diversity, biogeography, and ecology are based on records of sporocarps (Stephenson et al., 2008). This situation means that we generally miss information on the distribution of trophic stages, such as myxamoebae, myxoflagellates, and plasmodia (Stephenson et al., 2011). ...
... Myxomycetes occur in almost all terrestrial habitats (Stephenson et al., 2008). Plasmodia and sporocarps sometimes appear as well in aquatic habitats, such as ponds, rivers, aquaria, and hydroponic plant cultures (Tamayama and Keller, 2013;Michalczyk et al., 2011). ...
Metagenomics could help to overcome some of the limitations of more traditional approaches in myxomycete research. It can be used to increase the taxonomic resolution of ecological studies and to explore the distribution of myxomycete trophic stages in diverse habitats both at large and small geographic scales. In this chapter, we discuss the “pros and cons” of metagenomic methods. At the end, we describe the intriguing results that are beginning to expand our understanding of myxomycete ecology and
biogeography.
... Slime molds are ubiquitous in humid substrates such as most wood, soil, and dung worldwide (Stephenson et al. 2008). While the spores and spore-bearing structures of slime molds provide food for a diverse range of bee-tles, sphindids stand out as the only family in which all species appear to be obligately associated with this food source (Lawrence and Newton 1980). ...
The cryptic slime mold beetles, Sphindidae, are a moderately diverse cucujoid beetle family, whose members are obligately tied to slime molds throughout their life. The fossil record of sphindid beetles is sparse; stem-sphindids and crown-group members of uncertain systematic placement have been reported from Cretaceous ambers. Here we review the Mesozoic fossil record of Sphindi-dae and report a new sphindid genus and species, Trematosphindus newtoni gen. et sp. nov., from Albian/Cenomanian amber from northern Myanmar (ca. 99 Ma). Trematosphindus is set apart from all other sphindids by the presence of distinct lateral cavities on the anterior pronotal angles. Our phylogenetic analysis identifies Trematosphindus as an early-diverging genus within Sphindidae, sister to the remainder of the family except Protosphindus, or Protosphindus and Odontosphindus. The new fossils provide evidence that basal crown slime mold beetles begun to diversify by the mid-Cretaceous, providing a valuable calibration point for understanding timescale of sphindid co-evolution with slime molds.
... Myxomycetes, also known as acellular slime molds, comprise a ubiquitous and diverse group of ameboid organisms distributed worldwide, from temperate and tropical forests to deserts and alpine areas (Stephenson et al. 2008). The Myxomycetes spend most of their life cycle in some of the assimilative stages -amoebae, flagellated cells, or plasmodia -usually inconspicuous to the naked eye, however, they can produce macroscopic fruiting bodies, also referred to as sporophores, at the end of their life cycle (Martin & Alexopoulos 1969). ...
... The patterns that have shaped the current distribution of these and other species are still not well understood. The spores can disperse over long distances, being air-transported in the major global wind systems, and potentially overcome geographical barriers, even between continents (Muñoz et al. 2004, Stephenson et al. 2008. To discard the occurrence of a species in a particular area is always doubtful, especially in a group of organisms in which the microenvironmental factors limit their development (Ndiritu et al. 2009a, Liu et al. 2015. ...
The Myxomycetes comprise a remarkably diverse group of organisms within Amoebozoa, with over 1000 species currently recognized. These organisms, at the end of their life cycles produce fruiting bodies which are the basis for their systematics. Despite being a biodiversity hotspot, the tropical Andes has a myxobiota that remains barely explored so far. In this study, we report the occurrence of three species inhabiting the highlands of the Peruvian Andes between 3000–5000 m.a.s.l. Arcyodes incarnata and Trichia mirabilis are reported for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere and the Neotropics, respectively, while Metatrichia floripara represents the third record in the world, previously only known from Rwanda and Brazil. Fruiting bodies of T. mirabilis were detected as already developed in the field, while the previous reports only included moist chamber culture-derived specimens. These results notably enlarge the geographical distribution of these species and highlight the interest of the tropical Andes, which remains a challenging region to explore and determine its whole myxobiota.
... The group includes slightly over 1000 formally named species (see Lado, 2005Lado, -2021 for species names mentioned herein) delimited upon morphological characters of the fructifications. These can be stored as herbarium specimens, which led to a solid body of data on the distribution of species (Stephenson et al., 2008) within distinct communities across terrestrial habitats Schnittler et al., 2017). As such, they are directly observable but will be detected usually only by a few specialists working with this group. ...
To identify potentially suitable areas for the mostly alpine ecological guild of nivicolous (snowbank) myxomycetes, the worldwide distribution of a distinct morphospecies, Physarum albescens, was modelled with a correlative spatial approach using the software MaxEnt from 537 unique occurrence points. Three models were developed, first with only the 19 bioclimatic variables plus elevation from the WorldClim database, second with regularization to correct for pseudo-absence, and third with additional categorical environmental layer on snow cover. All three models showed high mean AUC (area under the curve) values (>0.970). Output maps were comparable, with the third model perhaps the most realistic. For this model, snow cover, precipitation of the coldest quarter (of the year), and elevation predicted best the distribution of Ph. albescens. Elevation alone is a good predictor only in some regions, since (i) elevation of the occurrence points decreases with increasing latitude, and (ii) elevation wrongly predicts the species' occurrence in arid mountain ranges. The model showed mountains in humid climates with highest incidence, which confirmed field studies: a long-lasting snow cover fluctuating with comparatively mild summers is the decisive factor. As such, the model can serve as a predictive map where fructifications of nivicolous myxomycetes can be expected. Limitations of the model are discussed: cryptic speciation within a morphospecies, including the evolution of reproductively isolated units which may lead to local adaptation and niche differentiation, and wider ranges for myxamoebal populations.
