| Title |
Excitable dynamics of Physarum polycephalum plasmodial nodes under chemotaxis |
|
Authors |
Rosario L. Reserva, Maria Theresa Mae M. Micompal, Kathleen C. Mendoza, Mark Nolan P. Confesor |
|
Publication date |
2021 |
|
Journal |
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications |
| Volume |
550 |
| Issue |
C |
| Pages |
171-176 |
| Publisher |
Elsevier |
| Abstract |
Recent results show that the chemotactic response of uni-cellular decentralized systems such as
amoeboid and mammalian cells, is excitable. The same observation has not yet been reported for multinucleated
decentralized biological systems. Here we present experimental results that shows the
Physarum polycephalum plasmodial nodes spatio-temporal chemotactic dynamics as an excitable
response. We found a highly optimized signal synthesis method wherein the Physarum nodes employ
two intensity thresholds to properly navigate the chemoattractant field and generate corresponding
spike dynamics in the node count. The node spike dynamics was found to correspond to the polarizeddepolarized
transition in the Physarum polycephalum morphology. Validation of our experimental observations
via Brownian lattice simulations yields the same quantitative results with our experiments. |
| Index terms / Keywords |
Physarum polycephalum, Chemotaxis, Excitable dynamics |
| DOI |
|
| URL |
|
Mindanao State
University - Iligan Institute of Technology