Digestion of Living Yeast Cells with Physarum polycephalum

On a mixed culture of Physarum polycephalum and Candida utilis, yeast cells ingested in the living plasmodium are digested, and remnants of the cell wall are found in the plasmodium in addition to cells in an almost intact form with intracellular highly dense substances. When growing yeast cells are treated with an extract from plasmodia the cell wall and intracellular substances are also disintegrated. The digestion, however, did not advance to produce spheroplasts or protoplasts under the condition employed in this experiment.