Bacterial tracking of motile algae assisted by algal cell's vorticity field.
Previously published experimental work by other authors has shown that certain motile marine bacteria are able to track free-swimming algae by executing a zigzag path and steering toward the algae at each turn. Here, we propose that the apparent steering behaviour could be a hydrodynamic effect, whereby an algal cell's vorticity and strain-rate fields rotate a pursuing bacterial cell in the appropriate direction. Using simplified models for the bacterial and algal cells, we numerically compute the trajectory of a bacterial cell and demonstrate the plausibility of this hypothesis.
Locsei
J T
JT
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK. j.t.locsei@cantab.net
Pedley
T J
TJ
D001419:Bacteria; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological