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Hydrodynamic Effects of Mastigonemes in the Cryptophyte Chilomonas paramecium

Authors :
Ludivine Sanchez Arias
Branden Webb
Kiarash Samsami
Linda Nikolova
Malan Silva
Henry C. Fu
Source :
Hydrobiology, Vol 3, Iss 3, Pp 159-182 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2024.

Abstract

Many swimming protists travel by actuating whip-like flagella to generate thrust. While many organisms’ flagella have been observed to have hair-like protrusions called mastigonemes, the function of these mastigonemes is not known. In particular, however, although theory, numerics, and some experiments suggest that mastigonemes can initiate the reversal in direction of thrust generated relative to the direction of traveling waves propagated along flagella, other experiments have found that they do not have hydrodynamic effects. Thus, it remains unclear whether mastigonemes have a hydrodynamic effect and function; additionally, any hydrodynamic effects may be species-dependent, which calls for the investigation of additional species. In this work, we report experimental observations of the cryptophyte C. paramecium that obtain their cell body, flagellar, and mastigoneme geometries, as well as their swimming kinematics and behavior. We then use the observed geometries and kinematics to numerically simulate swimming trajectories for a particularly well-characterized reorientation event, with and without various configurations of the mastigonemes. The comparison of numerical and experimental results shows that a configuration of mastigonemes in the beating plane best reproduces the observed reorientation dynamics, suggesting that in C. paramecium, although mastigonemes do not lead to gross changes in motility, such as thrust reversal, they do exert important quantitative effects.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
26739917
Volume :
3
Issue :
3
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Hydrobiology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.f23586fba95742d5b3be6aa5fd77895b
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrobiology3030012