Abstract
In this review, we introduce Vorticella as a model biological micromachine for microscale engineering systems. Vorticella has two motile organelles: the oral cilia of the zooid and the contractile spasmoneme in the stalk. The oral cilia beat periodically, generating a water flow that translates food particles toward the animal at speeds in the order of 0.1–1 mm/s. The ciliary flow of Vorticella has been characterized by experimental measurement and theoretical modeling, and tested for flow control and mixing in microfluidic systems. The spasmoneme contracts in a few milliseconds, coiling the stalk and moving the zooid at 15–90 mm/s. Because the spasmoneme generates tension in the order of 10–100 nN, powered by calcium ion binding, it serves as a model system for biomimetic actuators in microscale engineering systems. The spasmonemal contraction of Vorticella has been characterized by experimental measurement of its dynamics and energetics, and both live and extracted Vorticellae have been tested for moving microscale objects. We describe past work to elucidate the contraction mechanism of the spasmoneme, recognizing that past and continuing efforts will increase the possibilities of using the spasmoneme as a microscale actuator as well as leading towards bioinspired actuators mimicking the spasmoneme.
Highlights
We focus on Vorticella in the sessile form and summarize previous studies about its its beating cilia and contractile stalk
It has been suggested that the biological motors of microorganisms can be used or mimicked in microsystems to reduce the overall size of devices, and cilia beating has been envisaged as a potential strategy inducing fluid flowfluid and flow mixing microsystems
Using microorganisms either directly in microscale systems or as the inspiration to engineer similar biomimetic systems has the possibility to open up new frontiers in micromachinery
Summary
Protozoa have been widely studied as model systems for biology, physics, engineering and biomimetics. It has been thatcreatures in termsusing of specific power been estimated thatthe in terms power (powerbetter dissipation per mass) the stalkengines of Vorticella dissipation per mass) stalk of ofspecific Vorticella performs than both automotive and performs better than both automotive engines and striated muscle [15]. While most biological contractile systems depend on ATP Because of external its surpassing contractility andinto unique energy source, the Vorticella stalk is driven only by calcium ions diffusing the spasmoneme [17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. Ca -powered cell motility and biomimetic actuating materials [24,25,26,27,28,29]
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