''Echinostelium'' is a genus of
slime mould
Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formation of spores. Spores are often produced in macroscopic mu ...
, and the only genus in the family Echinosteliaceae, or Echinosteliidae. It was discovered by
Heinrich Anton de Bary
Heinrich Anton de Bary (26 January 183119 January 1888) was a German surgeon, botanist, microbiologist, and mycologist (fungal systematics and physiology).
He is considered a founding father of plant pathology (phytopathology) as well as the fou ...
in 1855, apparently near
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. Some species of Echinostelium have a sexual life cycle; others have been shown to be asexual. The plasmodium can divide
vegetatively, in a process called ''plasmotomy'', to distinguish it from true
cell division
Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two daughter cells. Cell division usually occurs as part of a larger cell cycle in which the cell grows and replicates its chromosome(s) before dividing. In eukaryotes, there ar ...
.
Species
The genus ''Echinostelium'' comprises at least five species:
*''
Echinostelium apitectum''
K. D. Whitney, 1980
*''
Echinostelium colliculosum''
K. D. Whitney & H. W. Keller, 1980
*''
Echinostelium corynophorum''
K. D. Whitney, 1980
*''
Echinostelium fragile''
Nannenga-Bremekamp, 1961
*''
Echinostelium minutum''
De Bary ''in'' Rostafinsky, 1874
References
Myxogastria
Amoebozoa genera
{{Amoebozoa-stub