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
1079-7114
Volume Title
116
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Publisher DOI
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.