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SUMMARY:The art of cell locomotion: flagellar swimming\, steering and sync
 hronization - Benjamin Friedrich\, Max-Planck Institute\, Dresden
DTSTART:20150204T130000Z
DTEND:20150204T140000Z
UID:TALK57826@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Hugo Wioland
DESCRIPTION:Cilia and flagella represent a best-seller of nature:\nThese s
 lender cell appendages propel sperm and many other microswimmers.\nYet\, c
 ilia and flagella serve not only as "cell propeller"\, but function also a
 s sensory organelles.\nThereby\, they provide an ideal model system to stu
 dy physical principles of motility control.\nIn my talk\, I will first add
 ress a specific example of chemo-sensation\,\nshowing how sperm find the e
 gg by steering their path in response to chemical cues released by the egg
 .\nRecent experimental advances of tracking sperm cells navigating in thre
 e space dimensions\nallowed us to test a geometric theory of steering alon
 g helical paths\, which we had put forward previously.\nIn a second part\,
  I will show how beating flagella also respond to mechanical forces.\nColl
 ections of flagella can beat in synchrony\, supposedly coupled by hydro-me
 chanical interactions.\nWe combined theory and experiment to elucidate a m
 echanism of synchronization in the model organism Chlamydomonas:\nThis tin
 y green alga swims like a breast-swimmer with two flagella\, which can syn
 chronize their beat .\nOur analysis shows how synchronization arises by a 
 coupling of cell rocking and flagellar beating.\nWe characterizes an exemp
 lary force-velocity relationship of the flagellar beat: hydrodynamic force
 s set the speed of the beat.\nRemarkably\, this novel synchronization mech
 anism operates independent of direct hydrodynamic interactions\,\nand work
 s reliably also in the presence of active flagellar fluctuations.
LOCATION:MR11\,  Centre for Mathematical Sciences\, Wilberforce Road\, Cam
 bridge
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