Journal
| Title | Excitable dynamics of Physarum polycephalum plasmodial nodes under chemotaxis Posted by Mark Nolan Confesor |
| 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 | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.02.133 |
| URL | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006291X21003600?via%3Dihub |