AMYLASE AS AN EXTRACELLULAR ENZYME FROM PLASMODIA OF MYXOMYCETES

In the course of our studies on the nature of the relationship between plasmodia of myxomycetes and their bacterial associates, we found that the plasmodia of Physarum flavicomum and Stemonitis herbatica were able to degrade starch in starch agar plates, whereas their bacterial associates Flavobacterium breve and Paracoccus denitrificans in pure culture could not do so, suggesting a dependence of bacterial associate on the plasmodium for utilization of a complex substrate. Further, a wide zone of starch clearance around the plasmodium in P. flavicomum indicated that the enzyme was extracellular. The significance of this finding is that the production of extracellular amylase by myxomycetes is being reported for the first time, and it suggests that the myxomycetes may have an absorptive mode of nutrition besides the ingestive or holozoic mode generally ascribed to them.