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Motility of Colonial Choanoflagellates and the Statistics of Aggregate Random Walkers.


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Authors

Kirkegaard, Julius B 
Marron, Alan O 
Goldstein, Raymond E 

Abstract

We illuminate the nature of the three-dimensional random walks of microorganisms composed of individual organisms adhered together. Such aggregate random walkers are typified by choanoflagellates, eukaryotes that are the closest living relatives of animals. In the colony-forming species Salpingoeca rosetta we show that the beating of each flagellum is stochastic and uncorrelated with others, and the vectorial sum of the flagellar propulsion manifests as stochastic helical swimming. A quantitative theory for these results is presented and species variability discussed.

Description

Keywords

Choanoflagellata, Flagella, Models, Biological, Movement

Journal Title

Phys Rev Lett

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0031-9007
1079-7114

Volume Title

116

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)
Sponsorship
European Research Council (247333)
Work supported by the EPSRC and St. Johns College (JBK), ERC Advanced Investigator Grant 247333 and a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award.