Slime Mold Agriculture

[laughingwillow]

On second thought, this information could have been inserted in the sentient life thread I started way back when but was revived recently.

quote from the link below: ...... new research, announced today in the journal Nature by my Rice University colleagues Joan Strassmann and David Queller, suggests that some social amoebae have taken this partnership to the next level. (I was not involved in the study.) Instead of slurping up every last bacterial cell they encounter as they ooze their way through the soil, certain genetic strains of Dictyostelium discoideum—aka "Dicty"—have evolved the ability to store bacteria and carry it with them in what amounts to a microscopic grain silo. Should they happen to find themselves in an area lacking in suitable bacteria, they just plant a new crop using their stored reserves.

http://www.slate.com/id/2281714/

lw

[Amomynous]

I saw this in the news the other day. Very interesting.

Slime molds are actually pretty cool creatures, and they're frequent topics of discussion at the Amomynous household. Did you know, for example, that they're pretty good at solving the Traveling Salesman problem, despite the fact that the problem (which is to find the shortest route between a collection of point located in space) has been shown to be NP-Complete, and therefore not very tractable computationally?  

A single-celled slime mould mindlessly foraging for food can create a network as efficient as the Tokyo rail system, researchers say.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010 ... ilway.html

There is a species of slime mold that visits our yard during certain seasons, and based upon its looks my wife and I affectionately started referring to it as "Cat Yack Fungus." I was therefore amused when, reading one of Paul Stametes' books, I found out the official name of the mold: "Dog Vomit Fungus."

Missed it by that much!

[laughingwillow]

Thanks for the link, amom. Interesting puke.

lw

[JRL]

Interesting stuff! DNA never ceases to amaze......

[senorsalvia]

There is a species of slime mold that visits our yard during certain seasons, and based upon its looks my wife and I affectionately started referring to it as "Cat Yack Fungus." I was therefore amused when, reading one of Paul Stametes' books, I found out the official name of the mold: "Dog Vomit Fungus."

Missed it by that much!

:lol:    'Ya just can't make up stuff this funny :e_smile:   Thanks Amom