PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Rebecca N. Poon
AU  - Timothy A. Westwood
AU  - Hannah Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer
AU  - Emelie Brodrick
AU  - Jamie Craggs
AU  - Eric E. Keaveny
AU  - Gáspár Jékely
AU  - Kirsty Y. Wan
TI  - Ciliary propulsion and metachronal coordination in reef coral larvae
AID  - 10.1101/2022.09.19.508546
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.09.19.508546
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/09/19/2022.09.19.508546.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/09/19/2022.09.19.508546.full
AB  - Larval dispersal is critical to the survival of coral reefs. As the only motile stage of the reproductive cycle, coral larvae choose a suitable location to settle and mature into adult corals. Here, we present the first detailed study of ciliary propulsion in the common stony reef coral Acropora millepora. Using high-speed, high-resolution imaging, particle image velocimetry, and electron microscopy, we reveal the arrangement of the densely packed cilia over the larval body surface, and their organisation into diaplectic (transversely propagating) metachronal waves. We resolve the individual-cilium’s beat dynamics and compare the resultant flows with a computational model of a ciliary array, and show that this form of ciliary metachronism leads to near-maximal pumping efficiency.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.