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Myxomycetes: Biology, Systematics, Biogeography and Ecology, Second Edition provides a complete collection of general and technical information on myxomycetes microorganisms. Its broad scope takes an integrated approach, considering a number of important aspects surrounding their genetics and molecular phylogeny. The book treats myxomycetes as a distinct group from fungi and includes molecular information that discusses systematics and evolutionary pathways. Written and developed by an international team of specialists, this second edition contains updated information on all aspects of myxomycetes. It incorporates relevant and new material on current barcoding developments, plasmodial network experimentation, and non-STEM disciplinary assimilation of myxomycete information.
This book is a unique and authoritative resource for researchers in organismal biology and ecology disciplines, as well as students and academics in biology, ecology, microbiology, and similar subject areas.
Cover image used with permission from Steve Young Photography
List of contents
1. The Myxomycetes: Introduction, Basic Biology, Life Cycles, Genetics, and Reproduction
2. The History of the Study of Myxomycetes
3. The Phylogeny of Myxomycetes
4. The Barcoding of Myxomycetes
5. Genomics and Gene Expression in Myxomycetes
6. Molecular Techniques and Current Research Approaches
7. Physiology and Biochemistry of Myxomycetes
8. Taxonomy and Systematics: Current Knowledge and Approaches on the Taxonomic Treatment of Myxomycetes
9. Ecology and Distribution of Myxomycetes
10. Biogeographical Patterns in Myxomycetes
11. Techniques for Recording and Isolating Myxomycetes
12. Integrated Biology of Physarum polycephalum: Ultrastructure, cell biology, cellular cognition and behavior of plasmodial networks
13. Uses, Applications and Disciplinary Integration using Myxomycetes
14. Myxomycetes in Education: The Use of These Organisms in Promoting Active and Engaged Learning
About the author
Dr. Carlos Rojas is a full professor at the University of Costa Rica. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Arkansas under the mentorship of Dr. Steve Stephenson. He has been actively working on the ecology of myxomycetes across the Americas, but he has also carried out research in northern Africa, southeast Asia, and central Europe. He has been working in the field of scientific communication as well and has tried to link his interest in myxomycetes with this task. He has edited books on myxomycetes and forest ecology as well as several scientific documents on mycology. He has also published peer-reviewed articles on such topics as environmental education, ethnomycology, urban ecology, biosystems engineering, remote sensing and monitoring, climatology and forest management.Dr. Steve Stephenson retired from the University of Arkansas in 2023. He received his B.S. in biology from the University of Lynchburg and both an M.S and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. He was on the faculty of Fairmont State College (now University) for 27 years before moving to the University of Arkansas in 2003. During his academic career, he was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Himachal University in India in 1987, a Visiting Scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division in 1995, and the William Evans Visiting Fellow at the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand) in 2003. He is the author or coauthor of 20 books and more than 530 book chapters and papers in peer-reviewed journals. Among his recent books are Myxomycetes: Biology, Systematics, Biogeography, and Ecology (2017, 2021). Mushrooms of the Southeastern United States (2018), and Secretive Slime Moulds: Myxomycetes of Australia (2021).
