The chiral beat of algal flagella: force and torque via imaging

Abstract

Flagella allow eukaryotic cells to move and pump fluid. We present the first three-dimensional, time-resolved imaging of the flagellar waveform of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a model alga found in fresh water. During the power stroke, we find that the flagella show rotational symmetry about the cell's centreline, but during the recovery stroke they display mirror symmetry about the same axis. We use our three-dimensional imaging data to test the applicability of resistive force theory when a force-free configuration is approximated using a cell on a micropipette. The inferred values of cells' swimming speeds and rotation rates show good agreement with experimental results on freely swimming cells.