Gus Xia's Discussions

What is this food for slime mold

Started this discussion. Last reply by ian Apr 21, 2017. 3 Replies 0 Likes

Dear All,Anyone knows what is this perfectly "round" shape food for the slime mold in the…Continue

Intelligence level of slime mould?

Started this discussion. Last reply by François-Joseph Deminiere Apr 20, 2017. 5 Replies 0 Likes

Hey all,I know that it could solve maze, remember the food location, and even predict periodicity of environment. Are there any more (surprising) discoveries on the intelligent ability?Thanks,GusContinue

What agar can grow Physarum without oat

Started Oct 13, 2016 0 Replies 1 Like

Hi,I am new to Physarum Polycephalum. I see in most agar plates, we put oats. I was wondering if any kind of agar plate can grow Live Physarum polycephalum without oats? Especially some prepared ones…Continue

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Name: Gus

What is your interest in slime moulds? (we need to know you're not a bot or spamster): Shape, acoustic response

Academic Institution (if applicable): dartmouth college

Website: http://cs.cmu.edu/~gxia

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At 8:22 on October 19, 2016, Heather Barnett said…: It depends what you want to test. Its growth behaviour changes depending on the substrate it is growing on, i.e. it tends to swarm as a mass cell on nutrient agar and branch out in seek mode on non-nutrient agar (I use 2% agar powder or cooking agar). Slime mould will grow on non-nutrient agar but will be more actively looking for food. See https://youtu.be/5tYKYpQzu6E at end when food is taking away its growth becomes more frenetic.

Nutrient rich agar also gets contaminated more quickly.

If you want to try an agar which contains nutrient but isn't visible or lumpy, you could try a mix of yeast extract (Marmite) and dextrose (energy tablets). I have used this as feed, which it loves, but haven't tried mixing it with agar - but I can't see why it wouldn't work.

Try 1 teaspoon of marmite + a third of a dextrose tablet per 100ml of water (recipe comes from Audrey Dussutour via Natalie Andrews). Though I suspect the agar will contaminate quite quickly.

Let me/us (the collective) know how you get on.

I have fed it flour before too, you could try mixing that with agar, it should disperse evenly.

Good luck!

Heather

At 6:15 on October 14, 2016, Hans-Günther Döbereiner said…: Dear Gus,

please send me an email to hgd@uni-bremen.de

Which Group are you in/do you lead ?

Best wishes

HG