Emergence of morphological order in the network formation of Physarum polycephalum

Emergence in a system appears through the interaction of its components, giving rise to higher order or complexity in the system. We tested for the presence of emergent properties in a biological system using the simplest biological entity of a unicellular organism; the plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum, a giant unicellular amoeboid organism that forms a network-like tubular structure connecting its food sources. We let two plasmodium networks within a single cell interact with each other, and observed how the intracellular interaction affected the morphologenesis of the plasmodium networks. We found that the two networks developed homologous morphology. We further discuss the presence of autonomous and emergent properties in homologous network formation. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.