The Observation and Comparison of Physarum Polycephalum in Different Substrates Karen Chavez Michell Garcia Regina Cordova Karla Varela Biological Dynamics Lab 12/02/14 Dr. Peterson Abstract: Physarum polycephalum is a plasmodial slime mold. They like to ingest bacteria, fungal spores and even smaller protozoa.¹ Most people think that physarum is a fungus but it is actually a protist. The fact that they ingest their food does not make them a fungus. Fungi produce enzymes that break down organic material into chemicals that are absorbed through their cell walls but are not ingested. Other reasons why Physarum are a protist is because their cell walls are not made out of chitin and they grow rather quickly.〖^4〗 Where does Physarum grow the fastest? Between the habitats of wheat bread, white bread, rice cake and oats, Physarum polycephalum is hypothesized to grow faster on the oat plates. The methods used to find out if the hypothesis was true, were to place the plasmodial slime mold onto the different habitats. The major results found were that the slime mold grew the fastest on the oat plates making the hypothesis correct. Introduction: Slime molds like to feed on bacteria, protozoa, fungal spores and microbes. Physarum grows …show more content…
The oat plate is hypothesized to be the substrate where Physarum will grow the fastest because Physarum enjoy eating oats. Also, because the agar contained in the plates have the necessary nutrients for microorganisms to grow on. Results of the experiment showed that the hypothesis made was correct and that Physarum does indeed grow the fastest on oats as opposed to white bread, wheat bread or rice cakes. The other substrates showed proof that the fungus Rhizopus stolonifer was much stronger than Physarum and was able to cover some of the plates entirely with their fuzzy