» Articles » PMID: 36802777

Behavioural Changes in Slime Moulds over Time

Overview
Specialty Biology
Date 2023 Feb 21
PMID 36802777
Authors
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Changes in behaviour over the lifetime of single-cell organisms have primarily been investigated in response to environmental stressors. However, growing evidence suggests that unicellular organisms undergo behavioural changes throughout their lifetime independently of the external environment. Here we studied how behavioural performances across different tasks vary with age in the acellular slime mould . We tested slime moulds aged from 1 week to 100 weeks. First, we showed that migration speed decreases with age in favourable and adverse environments. Second, we showed that decision making and learning abilities do not deteriorate with age. Third, we revealed that old slime moulds can recover temporarily their behavioural performances if they go throughout a dormant stage or if they fuse with a young congener. Last, we observed the response of slime mould facing a choice between cues released by clone mates of different age. We found that both old and young slime moulds are attracted preferentially toward cues left by young slime moulds. Although many studies have studied behaviour in unicellular organisms, few have taken the step of looking for changes in behaviour over the lifetime of individuals. This study extends our knowledge of the behavioural plasticity of single-celled organisms and establishes slime moulds as a promising model to investigate the effect of ageing on behaviour at the cellular level. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.

Citing Articles

Novel image-analytic approach reveals new insights in fine-tuning of slime mould network adaptation.

Rosina P, Grube M R Soc Open Sci. 2024; 11(10):240950.

PMID: 39493301 PMC: 11528663. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.240950.


A multi-scale review of the dynamics of collective behaviour: from rapid responses to ontogeny and evolution.

Ioannou C, Laskowski K Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2023; 378(1874):20220059.

PMID: 36802782 PMC: 9939272. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0059.

References
1.
Lomagin A . Repair of functional and ultrastructural alterations after thermal injury of Physarum polycephalum. Planta. 2014; 142(2):123-34. DOI: 10.1007/BF00388203. View

2.
Allen R, Newton R, Sohal R, Shipley G, Nations C . Alterations in superoxide dismutase, glutathione, and peroxides in the plasmodial slime mold Physarum polycephalum during differentiation. J Cell Physiol. 1985; 125(3):413-9. DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1041250308. View

3.
Le Bourg E . Aging and habituation of the tarsal response in Drosophila melanogaster. Gerontology. 1983; 29(6):388-93. DOI: 10.1159/000213149. View

4.
Nakagawa C, Jones E, Miller D . Mitochondrial DNA rearrangements associated with mF plasmid integration and plasmodial longevity in Physarum polycephalum. Curr Genet. 1998; 33(3):178-87. DOI: 10.1007/s002940050325. View

5.
Lapinska U, Glover G, Capilla-Lasheras P, Young A, Pagliara S . Bacterial ageing in the absence of external stressors. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2019; 374(1786):20180442. PMC: 6792439. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0442. View