Magnetotaxis of the Physarum Plasmodium and Construction of a Magnetically Controlled Physarum Logic Gate
Tomohiro Shirakawa, Hiroshi Sato, Michinori Muro, Ryusuke Konagano, Ryota Ohno and Keita Inoue
The plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a unicellular multinucleate giant amoeba. The plasmodium exhibits many types of taxes and uses these movements to adapt to its environment. In our previous study, we revealed that the plasmodium also exhibits magnetotaxis. In this study, we further investigated factors related to this magnetotaxis for use as a controlling factor in bio-computing and proposed a hypothesis on magnetotactic response of the plasmodium. Additionally, as a demonstration of magnetically controlled bio-computing, we constructed a magnetically controlled Physarum logic gate.
Keywords: Bio-computing, amoeba-based computing, Physarum plasmodium, magnetotaxis, logic gate, magnetic control