Noise and synchronization in pairs of beating eukaryotic flagella.
It has long been conjectured that hydrodynamic interactions between beating eukaryotic flagella underlie their ubiquitous forms of synchronization; yet there has been no experimental test of this connection. The biflagellate alga Chlamydomonas is a simple model for such studies, as its two flagella are representative of those most commonly found in eukaryotes. Using micromanipulation and high-speed imaging, we show that the flagella of a C. reinhardtii cell present periods of synchronization interrupted by phase slips. The dynamics of slips and the statistics of phase-locked intervals are consistent with a low-dimensional stochastic model of hydrodynamically coupled oscillators, with a noise amplitude set by the intrinsic fluctuations of single flagellar beats.
Goldstein
Raymond E
RE
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.
Polin
Marco
M
Tuval
Idan
I
D002696:Chlamydomonas / Q000502:physiology; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000502:physiology*; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology*; D009622:Noise; D009991:Oscillometry; D010507:Periodicity