Question

What are the characteristics of slime molds?

Answer 1

Slime molds:

1. Slime molds are classified under kingdom Protista.
2. They are found creeping on debris, decaying leaves, or twigs, in soil, on the forest floor, on tree canopies, and in moist, dark, and cool conditions.
3. These eukaryotes can be found as free-living forms and also aggregate forms.
4. Their name is derived from their gelatinous or slimy appearance.
5. They are animal-like in their vegetative stage and plant-like in their reproductive stage.
6. They have a cell wall only when they are in their spore state.
7. During the other stages, they are surrounded by a plasma membrane.
8. They do not have chlorophyll, and hence are heterotrophic in nature.
9. Most of them are saprophytic or phagotrophic, while some of them are parasitic in flowering plants.
10. They move with the help of flagella.
11. They have an ameboid structure at some stage of their life cycle.
12. They have both sexual as well as asexual modes of reproduction.
13. The sporangium produces spores.
14. The two important groups of slime molds are- acellular or plasmodial slime molds(Class Myxomycetes) and cellular slime molds(Class Acrasiomycetes).