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arXiv · 1512.02823

Motility of Colonial Choanoflagellates and the Statistics of Aggregate Random Walkers

Julius B. Kirkegaard·Alan O. Marron·Raymond E. Goldstein
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Abstract

We illuminate the nature of the three-dimensional random walks of microorganisms composed of individual organisms adhered together. Such $aggregate~random~walkers$ are typified by choanoflagellates, eukaryotes that are the closest living relatives of animals. In the colony-forming species $Salpingoeca~rosetta$ we show that the beating of each flagellum is stochastic and uncorrelated with others, and the vectorial sum of the flagellar propulsion manifests as stochastic helical swimming. A quantitative theory for these results is presented and species variability discussed.

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Julius B. Kirkegaard, Alan O. Marron, Raymond E. Goldstein. 2015-12-09. Motility of Colonial Choanoflagellates and the Statistics of Aggregate Random Walkers. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.116.038102

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