Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii swims thanks to its two flagella, in a movement analogous to human breaststroke.
Repeating this elementary movement 50 times per second the algae have a mean velocity of 70 µm/s; the genetic diversity of the differents strains results in a huge range of values for this quantity.
After few seconds of run, an asynchronous beating of the two flagella leads to a random change of direction.
This movement is baptized "Run and Tumble" .
At a larger time and space scale, the random mouvement of the alga can be described as an active diffusion phenomenon .
Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii swims thanks to its two flagella, in a movement analogous to human breaststroke. Repeating this elementary movement 50 times per second the algae have a mean velocity of 70 µm/s; the genetic diversity of the differents strains results in a huge range of values for this quantity. After few seconds of run, an asynchronous beating of the two flagella leads to a random change of direction. This movement is baptized "Run and Tumble" . At a larger time and space scale, the random mouvement of the alga can be described as an active diffusion phenomenon .
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii