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Peritrichous bacteria such as Escherichia coli swim in viscous fluids by forming a helical bundle of flagellar filaments. The filaments are spatially distributed around the cell body to which they are connected via a flexible hook. To understand how the swimming direction of the cell is determined, we theoretically investigate the elastohydrodynamic motility problem of a multi-flagellated bacterium. Specifically, we consider a spherical cell body with a number N of flagella which are initially symmetrically arranged in a plane in order to provide an equilibrium state. We analytically solve the linear stability problem and find that at most 6 modes can be unstable and that these correspond to the degrees of freedom for the rigid-body motion of the cell body. Although there exists a rotation-dominated mode that generates negligible locomotion, we show that for the typical morphological parameters of bacteria the most unstable mode results in linear swimming in one direction accompanied by rotation around the same axis, as observed experimentally.
Confinement and wall effects are known to affect the kinematics and propulsive characteristics of swimming microorganisms. When a solid body is dragged through a viscous fluid at constant velocity, the presence of a wall increases fluid drag, and thu
It is widely believed that the swimming speed, $v$, of many flagellated bacteria is a non-monotonic function of the concentration, $c$, of high-molecular-weight linear polymers in aqueous solution, showing peaked $v(c)$ curves. Pores in the polymer s
The natural habitats of microorganisms in the human microbiome and ocean and soil ecosystems are full of colloids and macromolecules, which impart non-Newtonian flow properties drastically affecting the locomotion of swimming microorganisms. Although
In a multitude of lifes processes, cilia and flagella are found indispensable. Recently, the biflagellated chlorophyte alga Chlamydomonas has become a model organism for the study of ciliary coordination and synchronization. Here, we use high-speed i
In a variety of biological processes, eukaryotic cells use cilia to transport flow. Although cilia have a remarkably conserved internal molecular structure, experimental observations report very diverse kinematics. To address this diversity, we deter