Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 43: Cell Adhesion

BP 43.2: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 9. März 2016, 15:30–15:45, H43

Adhesion of the eukaryotic microalga Chlamydomonas to model surfaces — •Christian Kreis, Marcin Makowski, and Oliver Bäumchen — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Microorganisms are often found in aqueous environments and complex geometries, where they are likely to come into contact with interfaces. Therefore, their survival and behaviour in confinement depends upon their interaction with and adhesion to surfaces. In these processes, flagella and cilia play a crucial role since they are the source of locomotion and may come into direct contact with an interface. However, their interactions with interfaces are not yet understood. Microalgae represent microorganisms that are omnipresent in bioengineering. Their adhesion to surfaces, however, may obstruct the fluid flow and performance output of, e.g., alga farms and microfluidic devices. The unicellular alga Chlamydomonas serves as a biological model organism that entails a high technological relevance in terms of the production of biofuel and drugs. We perform adhesion experiments to study the interaction of Chlamydomonas and its flagella to interfaces, as a model for eukaryotic cells, flagella and cilia. We employ a micropipette force sensor technique that enables us to probe dynamic interfacial forces of microscale objects down to the pN range. The optical control enables us to track the adhesion of the cell body and the adhesion of the flagella. We observe that only the flagella and not the cell body adhere to our test substrates and provide precise adhesion force measurements of eukaryotic flagella to different model substrates.