I've tried quite a bit of sporulation induction for my Physarum culture since I need spores for experiments that I plan to do.
However, every time I try inducing the sporulation it appears to die while sporulating, leading to immature sporangia.
After crushing the sporangia some spheres are visible (maybe spores) but they don't come out of the sporangia naturally (no dust) and they don't germinate.
Here is a micro photo of the crushed sporangia with spore like spheres, and deformed sporangia in the right (looks like they couldn't finish developing).
Is this normal? Should I just keep doing it until they form properly? Tips are welcomed.
Kenneth Ramos
What is it that you mean by "induced sporulation?" Sporulation is a touchy process. As you probably already know, temperature, humidity, and light among the most prominent are major players in getting a plasmodium to sporulate. I have never tried induced sporulation but allow it to occur naturally. Even then it is a lengthy process ranging from 21 days to a month, sometimes longer depending on species. Your photographs are quite good and the deformed sporangia are evidence of a disturbance of sorts, maybe? IMO that is, though I could be wrong. It doesn't take much of any outside interference to cause this to happen from what I have read. It will be quite interesting as to what you find out.
Jan 18
Vicente Lopes
Update:
I think i finally achieved finished sporangia. The sporangia are a lot larger and more complex than anything I've gotten before and after a bit of time the individual sporangium turned from a moist/shiny black to a dull grayish colour. The sporangia also crush very easily and clearly release a large amount of spores that look almost purple with the naked eye. Under the microscope, the spores seem developed and abundant! The slime that sporulated was very large so the amount of sporangia should last forever basically. Maybe the size is a factor for the complete maturation of the spores? That seems to be the only variable since I used the same technique as before, except maybe a more constant temperature since it comes from house heating instead of weather.
Really excited about this! The next step is to be able to germinate the spores and try to document and photograph the ameboid and flagellate haploid cells. And ultimately form a new and genetically distinct plasmodium.
Vicente
Feb 4