Ergot Alkaloids Affect Foraging Activity of the Slime Mold <i>Physarum polycephalum</i>.

Abstract

We tested whether ergot alkaloids would affect the interaction of a protist with an ergot alkaloid-producing fungus by studying the response of the plasmodial slime mold <i>Physarum polycephalum</i> to cultures of <i>Aspergillus leporis</i>. Ergot alkaloid profiles were manipulated by culturing <i>A. leporis</i> and its <i>easD</i> knockout derivative on media for 6 or 13 days. Six-day-old, wild-type <i>A. leporis</i> samples contained abundant lysergic acid α-hydroxyethylamide (LAH) that was greatly depleted by 13 days. The intermediate chanoclavine-I was the predominant ergot alkaloid in all samples of the <i>easD</i> knockout. Inoculum of <i>P. polycephalum</i> was placed equidistant between the fungus-colonized agar medium explant, and the preference of the slime mold for either fungal explant was observed. When offered 6-day-old samples of wild-type <i>A. leporis</i> (containing mainly LAH) or the <i>easD</i> knockout (containing mainly chanoclavine-I), plasmodia of <i>P. polycephalum</i> preferred the <i>easD</i> knockout strain over wild type by a significant margin (<i>p</i> = 0.0002). When given the same options at 13 days, there was no longer a preference for the <i>easD</i> knockout over wild type, which by that time had lost more than 90% of its LAH. Our data demonstrate that ergot alkaloids, including LAH and chanoclavine-I, affect the interaction of <i>P. polycephalum</i> with <i>A. leporis</i>.

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