Viability of Physarum polycephalum spores and ploidy of plasmodial nuclei

Abstract

Amoebae of Physarum polycephalum carrying the mth mating-type allele may differentiate into plasmodia in the absence of mating. Such plasmodia are haploid and, upon sporulation, produce mainly inviable spores. We have asked whether the viable spores arise from meiotic or mitotic divisions. Using a microfluorometric measurement of the deoxyribonucleic acid content of individual nuclei, we found the fraction of viable spores to be correlated with the proportion of rare, diploid nuclei containing in the generally haploid plasmodium. When homozygous diploid plasmodia were created by heat shocking, spore viability increased dramatically. We suggest that viable spores are produced via meiosis in mth plasmodia, that the mth allele has no effect on sporulation per se, and that the normal source of viable haploid spores is a small fraction of diploid nuclei ubiquitous in haploid plasmodia.