noun
definition
Any protozoan of the phylum Myxomycota; the slime molds
Examples of myxomycetes in a Sentence
It was formerly the custom to include with the Fungi the Schizomycetes or Bacteria, and the Myxomycetes or Mycetozoa; but the peculiar mode of growth and division, the cilia, spores and other peculiarities of the former, and the emission of naked amoeboid masses of protoplasm, which creep and fuse to streaming plasmodia, with special modes of nutrition and spore-formation of the latter, have led to their separation as groups of organisms independent of the true Fungi.
The Mycetozoa or Myxomycetes are a saprophytic group without chlorophyll, of simple structure and isolated position.
Cellulose, the material of which vegetable cell-walls are almost universally composed, at any rate in their early condition, is known to occur, though only seldom, among animal organisms. Such forms as Volvox and the group of the Myxomycetes have been continually referred to both kingdoms, and their true systematic position is still a subject of controversy.
In some cases both the nucleus and the chromatophores may be carried along in the rotating stream, but in others, such as T.Titeila, the chloroplasts may remain motionless iii a non-motile layer of the cytoplasm in direct contact with the cell wall.i Desmids, Diatoms and Oscillaria show creeping movements probably due to the secretion of slime by the cells; the swarmspores and plasmodium of the Myxomycetes exhibit amoehoid movements; and the motile spores of Fungi and Algae, the spermatozoids of mosses, ferns, &c., move by means of delicate prolongations, cilia or flagella cf the protoplast.
Those fungi which are of a dusty nature, and the Myxomycetes or Mycetozoa may, like the lichens, be preserved in small boxes and arranged in drawers.
It has been accepted for some time now that the majority of the fungi proper fall into three main groups, the Phycomycetes, Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes, the Schizomycetes and Myxomycetes (Mycetozoa) being considered as independent groups not coming under the true fungi.
On the other hand, the uniciliate zoospores of Polyphagus have slightly amoeboid movements, and in this and the pseudopodium-like nature of the protoplasmic processes, such forms suggest resemblances to the Myxomycetes.
Observed originally by Engelmann in bacteria, by Stahl in myxomycetes, and by Pfeffer in ferns, mosses, &c., it has now become recognized as a widespread phenomenon.