Acrasidae

The family Acrasidae (ICZN, or Acrasiomycota, ICBN) is a family[1] of slime molds which belongs to the excavate group Percolozoa. The name element acrasio- comes from the Greek akrasia, meaning "acting against one's judgement". This group consists of cellular slime molds.

Acrasid slime molds
Acrasis rosea
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
(unranked): Discoba
Superphylum: Discicristata
Phylum: Percolozoa
Class: Heterolobosea
Order: Acrasida
Family: Acrasidae
van Tieghem 1880 ex Hartog 1906
Genera
  • Acrasis van Tieghem 1880
  • Pocheina Loeblich & Tappan 1961
Synonyms
  • Acrasiaceae Poche 1913 em. Olive 1970
  • Guttulinaceae Zopf 1885 ex Berlese 1888 nom. rej.
  • Guttulininae Doflein & Reichenow 1952
  • Pocheinaceae Loeblich & Tappan 1961 nom. cons.
Acrasis rosea amoebae and spores under microscope

Some would also consider it as a kingdom unto itself, but the debate is as yet unsettled.

The terms "Acrasiomycota" or "Acrasiomycetes" have been used when the group was classified as a fungus ("-mycota"). In some classifications, Dictyostelium was placed in Acrasiomycetes, an artificial group of cellular slime molds, which was characterized by the aggregation of individual amoebae into a multicellular fruiting body, making it an important factor that related the acrasids to the dictyostelids.[2]

Reproduction

When resources such as water or food become limiting, the amoeba will release pheromones such as acrasin to aggregate amoebal cells in preparation for movement as a large (thousands of cells) grex or pseudopod. When in the grex, the amoeboids reproduce, resulting in fruit-like structures called spores, which develop into unicellular molds of the same species.

References
  1. Roger AJ, Smith MW, Doolittle RF, Doolittle WF (1996). "Evidence for the Heterolobosea from phylogenetic analysis of genes encoding glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase" (PDF). J. Eukaryot. Microbiol. 43 (6): 475–85. doi:10.1111/j.1550-7408.1996.tb04507.x. PMID 8976605.
  2. Cavender J.C.; Spiegl F.; Swanson A. (2002). "Taxonomy, slime molds, and the questions we ask". The Mycological Society of America. 94 (6): 968–979. PMID 21156570.
  • C.J. Alexopolous, Charles W. Mims, M. Blackwell et al., Introductory Mycology, 4th ed. (John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken NJ, 2004) ISBN 0-471-52229-5


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