MELANIN REVEALED IN SPORES OF THE TRUE SLIME-MOLDS USING THE ELECTRON-SPIN-RESONANCE METHOD

The study was undertaken in order to characterize the type of pigment present in the spore wall of Physarum polycephalum, Physarum nudum, and Fuligo septica. The measurements were carried out on two kinds of material: crude spores and black pigment isolated from the spores using the electron spin resonance (ESR) method. The obtained results referring to the general character of the ESR spectra, width 0.5 mT, and g-values appox. 2 definitely indicated the presence of the melanin-type pigment in all three species. Species variations found: 1) the intensity of the ESR signal from the crude spores was highest in Ph. nudum, and lowest in F. septica; 2) the ESR signal of the black pigment isolated from spores was highest in Ph. polycephalum; on the other hand, signal values of Ph. nudum and F. septica pigments were comparable with each other and were lower by about 1/3 than that of the signal value of spore pigment of Ph. polycephalum.