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Control of Helical Navigation by Three-Dimensional Flagellar Beating

Dario Cortese and Kirsty Y. Wan
Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 088003 – Published 24 February 2021
Physics logo See synopsis: How a Microorganism Corkscrews While It Breaststrokes
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Abstract

Helical swimming is a ubiquitous strategy for motile cells to generate self-gradients for environmental sensing. The model biflagellate Chlamydomonas reinhardtii rotates at a constant 1–2 Hz as it swims, but the mechanism is unclear. Here, we show unequivocally that the rolling motion derives from a persistent, nonplanar flagellar beat pattern. This is revealed by high-speed imaging and micromanipulation of live cells. We construct a fully 3D model to relate flagellar beating directly to the free-swimming trajectories. For realistic geometries, the model reproduces both the sense and magnitude of the axial rotation of live cells. We show that helical swimming requires further symmetry breaking between the two flagella. These functional differences underlie all tactic responses, particularly phototaxis. We propose a control strategy by which cells steer toward or away from light by modulating the sign of biflagellar dominance.

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  • Received 27 September 2020
  • Revised 10 December 2020
  • Accepted 13 January 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.088003

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Physics of Living SystemsFluid Dynamics

synopsis

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How a Microorganism Corkscrews While It Breaststrokes

Published 24 February 2021

High-speed imaging and simulations show that the single-celled organism called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii beats its flagella on separate planes, explaining how it generates its helical movement.

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Authors & Affiliations

Dario Cortese and Kirsty Y. Wan*

  • Living Systems Institute and College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, United Kingdom

  • *Corresponding author. k.y.wan2@exeter.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 126, Iss. 8 — 26 February 2021

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