Abstract
The syncytial slime mold Physarum polycephalum has been widely employed as a model for the study of a variety of cellular events; however, the overwhelming emphasis in modern Physarum research has been on those areas directly related to growth and differentiation (22). Mitosis is synchronous following an interphase period of 8–10 h and mitotic synchrony implies metabolic synchrony (13). All events involved in the regulation of differentiation are therefore presumed to be amplified since they should occur simultaneously. This hypothesis has been the basis for intensive efforts to identify the role of specific enzymes (15), nucleic acids (2,8), and nuclear proteins (17) in the developmental processes of eucaryotes. A considerable volume of literature concerning developmental processes in Physarum has accumulated since Rusch (22) first introduced the organism as a model system for probing the events that govern the life cycle of cells. At this time little conclusive information has resulted; endogenous events and factors which induce specific cell state transitions have not been identified. A perennial problem has been to distinguish between the events that are causative and the events which are the consequence of differentiation. For example, when Physarum differentiates into groups of dormant spherules (sclerotia) dramatic changes occur in the electrophoretic profile of the nonhistone chromosomal proteins; however, it has not been possible to determine whether these changes induce differentiation or are a parallel response to the inductive treatment (17).
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Nations, C., Allen, R.G., McCarthy, J. (1984). Nonhistone Proteins, Free Radical Defenses and Acceleration of Spherulation in Physarum . In: Skehan, P., Friedman, S.J. (eds) Growth, Cancer, and the Cell Cycle. Experimental Biology and Medicine, vol 5. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5178-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5178-1_5
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