Cell Walls of Water and Slime Molds
The group Oomycetes, also known as water molds, are saprotrophic plant pathogens like fungi. Until recently they were widely believed to be fungi, but structural and molecular evidence has led to their reclassification as heterokonts, related to autotrophic brown algae and diatoms. Unlike fungi, oomycetes typically possess cell walls of cellulose and glucans rather than chitin, although some genera (such as Achlya and Saprolegnia) do have chitin in their walls. The fraction of cellulose in the walls is no more than 4 to 20%, far less than the fraction comprised by glucans. Oomycete cell walls also contain the amino acid hydroxyproline, which is not found in fungal cell walls.
The dictyostelids are another group formerly classified among the fungi. They are slime molds that feed as unicellular amoebae, but aggregate into a reproductive stalk and sporangium under certain conditions. Cells of the reproductive stalk, as well as the spores formed at the apex, possess a cellulose wall. The spore wall has been shown to possess three layers, the middle of which is composed primarily of cellulose, and the innermost is sensitive to cellulase and pronase.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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“All is waste and worthless, till
Arrives the selecting will,
And, out of slime and chaos, Wit
Draws the threads of fair and fit.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)