Path finding by tube morphogenesis in an amoeboid organism

摘要: We have studied how the plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum, a large amoeboid cell, is able to track shortest path between two selected points in labyrinth. When nutrients are supplied at these sheet-like extended fully maze, organism forms single tube which connects sites via route. During finding, plasmodial parts dead ends maze shrink and finally with minimum-length from existing possibilities. A simple cellular mechanism based on interacting rhythms may describe experimental observations.