ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
Random network peristalsis in Physarum polycephalum organizes fluid flows across an individual.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 161 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Bioinspired algorithm based on Physarum polycephalum for the formation of decentralized mesh networks in multi-robot systems.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Coexistence of trapped and flow-transported nuclei enables fast pigeon post communication across multinucleated cell.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The Evolution of Large Organism Size: Disparate Physiologies Share a Foundation at the Smallest Physical Scales.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Form and function in biological filaments: a physicist's review.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025Review
- Ecosystems as adaptive living circuits.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Analytical methods for cytoplasmic streaming in elongated cells.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Structure, motion, and multiscale search of traveling networks.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Bottom-up robust modelling for the foraging behaviour ofJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Measurement of protoplasmic streaming over the entire body ofBiophysics and physicobiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Perspectives on Principles of Cellular Behavior from the Biophysics of Protists.Integrative and comparative biology · 2023Review
- Two-fluid dynamics and micron-thin boundary layers shape cytoplasmic flows in earlyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Behavioural changes in slime moulds over time.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Two-fluid dynamics and micron-thin boundary layers shape cytoplasmic flows in earlybioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Vein fate determined by flow-based but time-delayed integration of network architecture.eLife · 2023Article
- Go with the flow - bulk transport by molecular motors.Journal of cell science · 2023Review
- Dispersive transport dynamics in porous media emerge from local correlations.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Individuals can function as integrated organisms only when information and resources are shared across a body. Signals and substrates are commonly moved using fluids, often channeled through a network of tubes. Peristalsis is one mechanism for fluid transport and is caused by a wave of cross-sectional contractions along a tube. We extend the concept of peristalsis from the canonical case of one tube to a random network. Transport is maximized within the network when the wavelength of the peristaltic wave is of the order of the size of the network. The slime mold Physarum polycephalum grows as a random network of tubes, and our experiments confirm peristalsis is used by the slime mold to drive internal cytoplasmic flows. Comparisons of theoretically generated contraction patterns with the patterns exhibited by individuals of P. polycephalum demonstrate that individuals maximize internal flows by adapting patterns of contraction to size, thus optimizing transport throughout an organism. This control of fluid flow may be the key to coordinating growth and behavior, including the dynamic changes in network architecture seen over time in an individual.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.