LAMS General Meeting

Speaker: Marcus Roper

Program: “Hyphal Highways and Intelligent Molds”

Fungi and slime molds come from different kingdoms of life, but are found in similar niches, and build networks of cells that look similar and fulfill similar purposes — the hydraulic transport of nutrients and cellular material. Although typically hidden in rotting woods, soil, or in host organisms, we now know that the networks solve the same problems that plague human-built transportation networks, such as roads or data networks, including balancing loads, rerouting traffic in response to damage and handling congestion. I will share some stories about how fungal and slime mold networks are built including: 1. How flow on hyphal highways enable fungi to become chimera that blend genetically different parts, and 2. How ‘brainless’ slime molds respond intelligently to their changing environments.

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