Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 17: Poster Session II
BP 17.30: Poster
Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 18:00–20:30, P4
Ciliary Adhesion of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii on Charge-Functionalized Surfaces — •Lea Rupprecht1, Rodrigo Catalan1, Christina Heinritz2, Thomas Scheibel2, and Oliver Bäumchen1 — 1University of Bayreuth, Experimental Physics V, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany — 2University of Bayreuth, Biomaterials, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
Elucidating the physical phenomena underlying the interactions between microorganisms and surfaces is crucial for developing technologies to control the formation of microbial biofilms. While most studies use bacteria as model organisms, the principles of microbial adhesion remain rather elusive for eukaryotic photosynthetic microorganisms. Recently it was discovered that the model unicellular microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii adheres to surfaces by means of its two cilia under blue light [Kreis et al., Nature Physics, 2018]. With in vivo single-cell micropipette force spectroscopy, the ciliary adhesion forces of C. reinhardtii on functionalized substrates were characterized to dissect the influence of surface energy, van der Waals and electrostatic interactions [Kreis et al., Soft Matter, 2019]. The results suggest that the predominant nature of the protein-mediated cilia-substrate adhesion of C. reinhardtii is due to electrostatic interactions. Here we present adhesion force measurements of C. reinhardtii on poly-L-lysine- and recombinant spider silk-coated silicon, revealing no charge preference for ciliary adhesion. In contrast to prokaryotic microorganisms, our results show C. reinhardtii uses highly versatile cilia to achieve microbial adhesion to surfaces of a broad range of physicochemical properties.
Keywords: Cell adhesion; Chlamydomonas; Cilia; Surface functionalization