Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 17: Poster Session II
BP 17.64: Poster
Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 18:00–20:30, P4
Cell-cell interactions of swimming ciliated microbes: from measured interaction dynamics to an effective potential — •Henrik Groh1,2, Alexandros A. Fragkopoulos1, Colin-Marius Koch3, Michael Wilczek3, and Oliver Bäumchen1 — 1University of Bayreuth, Experimental Physics V, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany — 2University of Bayreuth, Experimental Physics I, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany — 3University of Bayreuth, Theoretical Physics I, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
In suspensions of living microorganisms the interactions of individual agents may result in large-scale collective effects. Frequently such phenomena are studied more extensively with the goal of linking them to the microscopic single-cell motility and cell-cell interactions.
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii represents a unicellular eukaryotic model organism that is used to study collective phenomena of puller-type microswimmers, e.g., induced by a self-generated oxygen gradient [1] or by light (phototaxis). In order to complement these studies with a systematic cell-cell interaction analysis, we investigated the mutual interactions of C. reinhardtii in a quasi-2D suspension with high temporal and spatial resolution. Our measurements allow for deriving a pair-correlation function and an effective potential, which may eventually enter simulation studies. With our study we provide more detailed insights into the cell-cell interactions of C. reinhardtii and thus enable a better understanding of collective phenomena in living suspensions.
[ 1 ] A.A. Fragkopoulos, et al., J. R. Soc. Interface 18, 20210553 (2021).
Keywords: cell-cell interactions; microswimmers; pair correlation function; effective potential