Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 27: Fluid Physics of Life (joint session DY/BP)

BP 27.4: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 16:00–16:15, ZEU 160

Fluid transport by metachronal waves in cilia chains — •Albert von Kenne, Thomas Niedermayer, and Markus Bär — Physikalisch-Technische Budesanstallt (PTB), Berlin 10587

Motile cilia are hair-like cell extensions that undergo a cyclic motion with the purpose to transport the extracellular fluid at a low Reynolds number, providing crucial functionality of living matter such as cell locomotion or molecular transport in tissue. A striking feature of populations of cilia is a state of collective motion known as metachronal wave. In proximity to a cell surface a symmetry breaking of the flow field is due that affects the properties of metachronal waves and facilitates transport generation. We generalize a simple phase oscillator model for the elastohydrodynamic coupling in ciliated systems [1] to include this asymmetry. We obtain analytical results for the linear stability of metachronal waves in presence of long-range hydrodynamic interactions, illustrate their properties by numerical simulations and relate the change in transport ability to the specific properties of metachronal waves.

[1] Niedermayer et. al., Chaos: 18(3) 2008.