One landmark in the long history of biological studies on the "slime mold" Physarum polycephalum was the introduction of chemi cally defined growth conditions for the plasmodial phase of this organism in the laboratory of Harold P. Rusch in Wisconsin in the 1950s. A number of investigators began working with Physarum in that era, then dispersed over the world. In the 1950s to 1960s, the regular meetings of Physarum workers in North America were commonly held in Wisconsin. Strong new scientific initiatives in Physarum have grown up independently, from the disciplines of genetics, cytology, photo biology, and biophysics, in countries scattered over the world from Japan to Poland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Turkey, and Great Britain. Infusion of the technical power of contemporary molecular biology--in particular, gene cloning and monoclonal antibodies--has brought these dispersed investigators into mutual communication. It was therefore timely and appropriate to assemble the Physarum community again in Wisconsin after a hiatus of 20 years, at a conference in the Friedrick Conference Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, from July 8 to 13, 1985.
Editors and Affiliations
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
William F. Dove
University of Leicester, Leicester, England
Jennifer Dee
Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
Sadashi Hatano
University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway
Finn B. Haugli
University of Bonn, Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany
Karl-Ernst Wohlfarth-Bottermann
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Molecular Biology of Physarum polycephalum
Editors: William F. Dove, Jennifer Dee, Sadashi Hatano, Finn B. Haugli, Karl-Ernst Wohlfarth-Bottermann
