title: Load Response of the Flagellar Beat.
abstract: Cilia and flagella exhibit regular bending waves that perform mechanical work on the surrounding fluid, to propel cellular swimmers and pump fluids inside organisms. Here, we quantify a force-velocity relationship of the beating flagellum, by exposing flagellated Chlamydomonas cells to controlled microfluidic flows. A simple theory of flagellar limit-cycle oscillations, calibrated by measurements in the absence of flow, reproduces this relationship quantitatively. We derive a link between the energy efficiency of the flagellar beat and its ability to synchronize to oscillatory flows.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Gary S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Klindt
authors.affiliation: Experimental Physics, Saarland University, 66041 Saarbrücken, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruloff
authors.affiliation: Experimental Physics, Saarland University, 66041 Saarbrücken, Germany.|Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, 1511 Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany.|Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden cfaed, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Friedrich
mesh_terms: D002696:Chlamydomonas / Q000502:physiology*; D002923:Cilia; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement