title: A steering mechanism for phototaxis in Chlamydomonas.
abstract: Chlamydomonas shows both positive and negative phototaxis. It has a single eyespot near its equator, and as the cell rotates during the forward motion, the light signal received by the eyespot varies. We use a simple mechanical model of Chlamydomonas that couples the flagellar beat pattern to the light intensity at the eyespot to demonstrate a mechanism for phototactic steering that is consistent with observations. The direction of phototaxis is controlled by a parameter in our model, and the steering mechanism is robust to noise. Our model shows switching between directed phototaxis when the light is on and run-and-tumble behaviour in the dark.
authors.affiliation: Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3NP, UK.
authors.forename: Rachel R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3NP, UK ramin.golestanian@physics.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ramin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Golestanian
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001703:Biophysics; D002696:Chlamydomonas / Q000502:physiology*; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology; D008027:Light; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: cell locomotion; flagella; phototaxis