Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 15: Physics of Cells II
BP 15.9: Vortrag
Dienstag, 23. März 2010, 16:45–17:00, H43
Impact of microscopic motility on overall swimming behaviour of parasites — Sravanti Uppaluri1, Jan Nagler1, •Eric Stellamanns1, Niko Heddergott2, Stephan Herminghaus1, Markus Engstler2, and Thomas Pfohl1,3 — 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization, Göttingen — 2Biocenter, University of Würzburg — 3Chemistry Department, University of Basel
Trypanosomes, causative agents of sleeping sickness and Chagas disease, exhibit complex flagellum mediated motility. In trypanosomes this flagellum mediated motility has been shown to be essential for cell division, viability, and immunological escape from the host. Trypanosomes swim in one of three distinct motility modes: random walk, directional persistence, and an intermediate class in which they exhibit a combination of both. Using high-speed microscopy with a frame rate of 1000 Hz, we investigate the microscopic origin of these macroscopic motility modes. The experimentally observed motility modes correspond to distinct physical movements and can be attributed to distinct cell shape conferred mainly by flagellum dynamics. We find that directional persistence arises only with stretched cells implying that there are significant energy or stiffness differences within a single population. We report our findings on the dependence of cell shape on the cell cycle in which the flagellum plays a key role.