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Myxomycetes

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  • First Online:
Handbook of the Protists

Abstract

The myxomycetes (class Myxogastria), also commonly known as plasmodial slime molds or acellular slime molds, are the most species-rich group within the Amoebozoa, with approximately 1,000 morphologically recognizable species having been described. These organisms are free-living predators of bacteria and other eukaryotic protists. Myxomycetes have been recorded from every terrestrial habitat investigated to date. The two trophic stages (amoeboflagellates and plasmodia) in the life cycle are usually cryptic, but the fruiting bodies are often large enough to be observed directly in nature. Fruiting bodies release airborne spores that are dispersed by air or, more rarely, animal vectors. Myxomycetes are associated with a wide variety of different microhabitats, the most important of which are coarse woody debris, ground litter, aerial litter, and the bark surface of living trees. Specimens can be obtained as fruiting bodies that have developed in the field under natural conditions or cultured in the laboratory. A substantial body of data on the worldwide biodiversity and distribution of myxomycetes has been assembled over the past 200 years, but there is a relative lack of molecular data, since myxomycetes are neither pathogenic nor of economic importance. However, recent studies have produced the first, albeit still incomplete, molecular phylogenies of the group. Moreover, there appears to be a much higher level of diversity on the molecular level than reflected in the number of morphospecies, with the latter often consisting of reproductively isolated populations which can be considered as biospecies.

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Acknowledgments

The first author gratefully acknowledges the support provided by a number of grants from the National Science Foundation and the information gained from numerous colleagues over his career. Angela Mele provided the drawing used as the basis for Fig. 2 and Randy Darrah helped modify this and several of the other figures. The second author would like to thank a number of colleagues, especially Y. K. Novozhilov, D. Wrigley de Basanta, C. Lado, D. Leontyev and several former Ph.D. students, especially Y. Feng, N. Dagamac and J. Tesmer, for fruitful discussions and collaborations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Steven L. Stephenson

  2. Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, 17487, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Schnittler

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  1. Steven L. Stephenson
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  2. Martin Schnittler
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Correspondence to Steven L. Stephenson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    John M. Archibald

  2. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Alastair G.B. Simpson

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University , Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Claudio H. Slamovits

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Stephenson, S.L., Schnittler, M. (2017). Myxomycetes. In: Archibald, J., Simpson, A., Slamovits, C. (eds) Handbook of the Protists. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28149-0_44

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