Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 3: Active Matter I (joint session BP/CPP/DY)

BP 3.11: Talk

Monday, March 18, 2024, 12:15–12:30, H 1028

How cell shape guides gliding motility — •Leon Lettermann¹, Falko Ziebert¹, Mirko Singer¹, Friedrich Frischknecht², and Ulrich S. Schwarz² — ¹IPT & Bioquant, Heidelberg University — ²CIID, Heidelberg University

Cell motility comes in many different types, including swimming, crawling and gliding. The latter term denotes movement on surfaces or through tissues without appreciable changes in cell shape and is usually based on some kind of surface flow. Gliding motility is often used by cells that need to accomplish high speeds, including myxo- or flavobacteria as well as eukaryotic parasites from the phylum apicomplexa, in particular the causative agents of malaria and toxoplasmosis. We have developed an active particle theory which connects the self-organized surface dynamics to the global motility patterns of the glider. Our theory demonstrates that the resulting trajectories depend strongly on glider shape. Our analytical solutions and numerical simulations show that straight motion to get from A to B is unstable and predict the rotational and helical trajectories which are observed experimentally for gliding bacteria and apicomplexan parasites.

Keywords: Gliding motility; Bacteria; Parasites; Analytical results; Bifurcation analysis