Non-Transfer of Materials between Plasmodia of Different Species of Myxomycetes

Abstract

Until the relatively recent work of DANIELS & RuscH (1), opinion differed (2) as to whether myxomycete plasmodia were able to absorb materials in solution from their substrata or whether they were obligately holozoic. With the successful culture of Physantm polycephalum in a non-particulate medium this controversy was settled once for all, at least for that particular species. It has long been known that plasmodia of differents species when placed in intimate contact one with another do not merge, but that the protoplasm of one may flow over that of the other justas it migrates over the surface of any suitable substratum, With the knowledge that the plasmodium of P . polycephal~tm is able to absorb materials in solution, the question posed itself as to the possible transfer of soluble substances from one plasmodium into another when two protoplasts are in intimate contact. This paper presents the first results of a study which attempts to answer that question.