Antiphase Synchronization in a Flagellar-Dominance Mutant of Chlamydomonas

Abstract

Groups of beating flagella or cilia often synchronize so that neighboring filaments have identical frequencies and phases. A prime example is provided by the unicellular biflagellate Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which typically displays synchronous in-phase beating in a low-Reynolds number version of breaststroke swimming. We report here the discovery that ptx1, a flagellar dominance mutant of C. reinhardtii, can exhibit synchronization in precise antiphase, as in the freestyle swimming stroke. Long-duration high-speed imaging shows that ptx1 flagella switch stochastically between in-phase and antiphase states, and that the latter has a distinct waveform and significantly higher frequency, both of which are strikingly similar to those found during phase slips that stochastically interrupt in-phase beating of the wildtype. Possible mechanisms underlying these observations are discussed.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Spontaneous creation of macroscopic flow and metachronal waves in an array of cilia
• Emergent Run-and-Tumble Behavior in a Simple Model of Chlamydomonas with Intrinsic Noise
• Geometrically-protected reversibility in hydrodynamic Loschmidt-echo experiments

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• Hydrodynamic synchronization of spontaneously beating filaments
• In-phase and anti-phase flagellar synchronization by basal coupling
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• Multisynchrony in active microfilaments
• Synchrony and symmetry-breaking in active flagellar coordination
• Transitions in synchronization states of model cilia through basal-connection coupling
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