Molecular Biology of Physarum polycephalum

One landmark in the long history of biological studies on the "slime mold" Physarum polycephalum was the introduction of chemi­ cally defined growth conditions for the plasmodial phase of this organism in the laboratory of Harold P. Rusch in Wisconsin in the 1950s. A number of investigators began working with Physarum in that era, then dispersed over the world. In the 1950s to 1960s, the regular m...