A steering mechanism for phototaxis in Chlamydomonas

Abstract

Chlamydomonas shows both positive and negative phototaxis. It has a single eyespot near its equator and as the cell rotates during forward motion the light signal received by the eyespot varies. We use a simple mechanical model of Chlamydomonas that couples the flagellar beat pattern to the light intensity at the eyespot to demonstrate a mechanism for phototactic steering that is consistent with observations. The direction of phototaxis is controlled by a parameter in our model and the steering mechanism is robust to noise. Our model shows switching between directed phototaxis when the light is on and run-and-tumble behaviour in the dark.

arXiv comment7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (13)

• A Simplest Swimmer at Low Reynolds Number: Three Linked Spheres
• Direct measurement of the flow field around swimming microorganisms
• Oscillatory Flows Induced by Microorganisms Swimming in Two-dimensions
• Hydrodynamic flow patterns and synchronization of beating cilia
• Pushmepullyou: An efficient micro-swimmer
• Synchronization and Collective Dynamics in a Carpet of Microfluidic Rotors
• A basic swimmer at low Reynolds number
• Generic Conditions for Hydrodynamic Synchronization
• Cell body rocking is a dominant mechanism for flagellar synchronization in a swimming alga
• Steering chiral swimmers along noisy helical paths
• Emergent Run-and-Tumble Behavior in a Simple Model of Chlamydomonas with Intrinsic Noise
• Synchronization in A Carpet of Hydrodynamically Coupled Rotors with Random Intrinsic Frequency
• Phase Dependent Forcing and Synchronization in the three-sphere model of Chlamydomonas

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Phototaxis of synthetic microswimmers in optical landscapes
• Human sperm steer with second harmonics of the flagellar beat
• Viscotaxis: microswimmer navigation in viscosity gradients
• Active particles in viscosity gradients
• Scattering of biflagellate microswimmers from surfaces
• Tuning the motility and directionality of self-propelled colloids
• Motility and Phototaxis of $Gonium$, the Simplest Differentiated Colonial Alga
• Axisymmetric Squirmers in Stokes Fluid with Nonuniform Viscosity
• Controlling cell motion and microscale flow with polarized light fields
• Dynamics of a helical swimmer crossing viscosity gradients
• Optimal navigation of microswimmers in complex and noisy environments
• Odd elastohydrodynamics: non-reciprocal living material in a viscous fluid
• Optimal navigation strategies for microswimmers on curved manifolds
• Energetic cost of microswimmer navigation: the role of body shape
• Chirotactic response of microswimmers in fluids with odd viscosity
• Inertial self-propelled particles in anisotropic environments
• The younger flagellum coordinates the beating in C. reinhardtii
• Rototaxis: localization of active motion under rotation
• Active dipolar spheroids in shear flow and transverse field: Population splitting, cross-stream migration and orientational pinning
• Trypanosoma brucei moving in microchannels and through constrictions
• Viscotaxis of chiral microswimmer in viscosity gradients