NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Slime mold is not a plant or animal. It’s not a fungus, though it sometimes resembles one. Slime mold, in fact, is a soil-dwelling amoeba, a brainless, single-celled organism, often containing multiple nuclei.

Detailed explanation-2: -There are two types of slime mold: cellular and acellular (plasmodial). During the life cycle of cellular slime molds, they remain as single cells.

Detailed explanation-3: -Slime molds are classified in the Kingdom Protista (the Protists), despite many years of having been classified as fungi, in the class Myxomycetes.

Detailed explanation-4: -What are some examples of slime mould? There are approximately 900 species of slime moulds present worldwide. Examples include Stemonitis, Physarum, Dictyostellida, Lycogala, Tubifera, etc.

Detailed explanation-5: -Their ingestion of food is one reason slime molds are not considered to be fungi. Fungi produce enzymes that break down organic matter into chemicals that are absorbed through their cell walls, not ingested.