title: Correlation between electric potential and peristaltic behavior in Physarum polycephalum.
abstract: Plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a model species of eukaryotic microorganisms for studying amoeboid movement. Plasmodium's natural movements are characterized by the rhythmic back-and-forth streaming of cytoplasm peristalsis, which results in the directed locomotion of plasmodium, and the periodic change of the electric potential on the surface of plasmodium. Although it was suggested the causal connection between the cytoplasmic streaming and the electric potential in P. polycephalum, the relationship between its plasmodium peristaltic behavior and the surface electric potential had not been statistically proven. In this study, based on the modern microscopic observation and the new electric potential measurement, we proved the consistence between the frequency spectrums of the electric potential wave and the peristaltic wave during the growth of plasmodium and the synchronization of their waveforms through cross-correlational analysis. And we concluded that the correlation exists between the peristaltic wave and the electric potential wave. This study added new evidence to the hypothesis of the sharing inner biological mechanism between plasmodium's peristaltic behavior and electric potential as previous studies indicated, and brought a new perspective towards the future research on amoeboid movement.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China.
authors.forename: Yutong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China.
authors.forename: Ruonan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China.
authors.forename: Yiqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China. Electronic address: chliu@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Changhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D003595:Cytoplasmic Streaming / Q000502:physiology*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D010528:Peristalsis / Q000502:physiology*; D016839:Physarum polycephalum / Q000502:physiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: Electronic potential; P. polycephalum; Peristaltic behavior; Plasmodium