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Motility and Phototaxis of Gonium, the Simplest Differentiated Colonial Alga

Hélène de Maleprade, Frédéric Moisy, Takuji Ishikawa, View ORCID ProfileRaymond E. Goldstein
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/845891
Hélène de Maleprade
1Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom
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Frédéric Moisy
2Laboratoire FAST, Université Paris-Sud, CNRS, Universtié Paris-Saclay - Paris, France
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Takuji Ishikawa
3Department of Finemechanics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-01 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan
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Raymond E. Goldstein
1Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom
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  • ORCID record for Raymond E. Goldstein
  • For correspondence: r.e.goldstein@damtp.cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

Green algae of the Volvocine lineage, spanning from unicellular Chlamydomonas to vastly larger Volvox, are models for the study of the evolution of multicellularity, flagellar dynamics, and developmental processes. Phototactic steering in these organisms occurs without a central nervous system, driven solely by the response of individual cells. All such algae spin about a body-fixed axis as they swim; directional photosensors on each cell thus receive periodic signals when that axis is not aligned with the light. The flagella of Chlamydomonas and Volvox both exhibit an adaptive response to such signals in a manner that allows for accurate phototaxis, but in the former the two flagella have distinct responses, while the thousands of flagella on the surface of spherical Volvox colonies have essentially identical behaviour. The planar 16-cell species Gonium pectorale thus presents a conundrum, for its central 4 cells have a Chlamydomonas-like beat that provide propulsion normal to the plane, while its 12 peripheral cells generate rotation around the normal through a Volvox-like beat. Here, we combine experiment, theory, and computations to reveal how Gonium, perhaps the simplest differentiated colonial organism, achieves phototaxis. High-resolution cell tracking, particle image velocimetry of flagellar driven flows, and high-speed imaging of flagella on micropipette-held colonies show how, in the context of a recently introduced model for Chlamydomonas phototaxis, an adaptive response of the peripheral cells alone leads to photo-reorientation of the entire colony. The analysis also highlights the importance of local variations in flagellar beat dynamics within a given colony, which can lead to enhanced reorientation dynamics.

Footnotes

  • ↵* R.E.Goldstein{at}damtp.cam.ac.uk

  • https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gold/publications.html

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 20, 2019.
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Motility and Phototaxis of Gonium, the Simplest Differentiated Colonial Alga
Hélène de Maleprade, Frédéric Moisy, Takuji Ishikawa, Raymond E. Goldstein
bioRxiv 845891; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/845891
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Motility and Phototaxis of Gonium, the Simplest Differentiated Colonial Alga
Hélène de Maleprade, Frédéric Moisy, Takuji Ishikawa, Raymond E. Goldstein
bioRxiv 845891; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/845891

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