Slime mold

Slime molds (British English: Slime moulds) are a variety of small or microscopic organisms in different groups. They have both single-celled and multicellular forms during their life cycle, the individual cells coming together to form fruiting bodies that produce spores. Most live in damp places such as rotting wood. More formally, the slime molds are a polyphyletic assemblage of distantly related eukaryotic organisms in the Stramenopiles, Rhizaria, Discoba, Amoebozoa and Holomycota clades. Most are near-microscopic; those in the Myxogastria form larger plasmodial slime molds visible to the naked eye. Spores are often produced in macroscopic multicellular or multinucleate fruiting bodies formed through aggregation or fusion; aggregation is driven by chemical signals called acrasins. Slime molds contribute to the decomposition of dead vegetation; some are parasitic. Most slime molds are terrestrial and free-living, typically in damp shady habitats. Eumycetozoa flourish in swamp forests. Some myxogastrians and protostelians are aquatic or semi-aquatic. The phytomyxea are parasitic, living inside their plant hosts. Geographically, slime molds are cosmopolitan in distribution. A small number of species occur in regions as dry as the Atacama Desert and as cold as the Arctic; they are abundant in the tropics, especially in rainforests. Slime molds have a variety of behaviors otherwise seen in animals with brains. Species such as Physarum polycephalum have been used to simulate traffic networks. Some species have traditionally been eaten by humans in countries such as Ecuador.