Abstract
Abstract
Highlights
Volvox is a genus of algae, several species of which form spherical, free-swimming colonies consisting of up to 50 000 somatic cells embedded in an extracellular matrix on the surface, with interior germ cells that develop into a small number of colonies of the generation
The colony has an anterior–posterior axis of symmetry and each somatic cell bears a pair of beating flagella that enable the colony to swim approximately parallel to this axis
Modelling suggests that hydrodynamic interactions between the flagella of different cells, coupled with flagellar flexibility, provide the mechanism for the coordination (Niedermayer, Eckhardt & Lenz 2008; Brumley et al 2012, 2015)
Summary
Volvox is a genus of algae, several species of which form spherical, free-swimming colonies consisting of up to 50 000 somatic cells embedded in an extracellular matrix on the surface, with interior germ cells that develop into a small number of colonies of the generation. Each cell’s flagella beat in approximately the same direction (relative to the colony), i.e. in a plane that is offset from a purely meridional plane by an angle of 10◦–20◦. This offset causes the colony to rotate about its axis as it swims (Hoops 1993); the rotation is always clockwise when viewed from its anterior pole. The beating of the flagella of cells at different polar angles, θ , has been observed, in colonies held stationary on a micro-pipette, to be coordinated in the form of a symplectic metachronal wave, which propagates from anterior to posterior in the same direction as the power stroke of the flagellar beat (Brumley et al 2012). A detailed survey of the physics and fluid dynamics of green algae such as Volvox has been given by Goldstein (2015)
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