Hydrodynamics of Prey Capture and Transportation in Choanoflagellates
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
2
National Institute of Aquatic Resources and Centre for Ocean Life, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
3
Computational Science and Engineering Laboratory, ETH, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Houshuo Jiang
Fluids 2021, 6(3), 94; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6030094
Received: 27 December 2020 / Revised: 10 February 2021 / Accepted: 13 February 2021 / Published: 27 February 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Fluid Dynamics)
Choanoflagellates are unicellular microscopic organisms that are believed to be the closest living relatives of animals. They prey on bacteria through the act of the continuous beating of their flagellum, which generates a current through a crown-like filter. Subsequently, the filter retains bacterial particles from the suspension. The mechanism by which the prey is retained and transported along the filter remains unknown. We report here on the hydrodynamic effects on the transportability of bacterial prey of finite size using computational fluid dynamics. Here, the loricate choanoflagellate Diaphaoneca grandis serves as the model organism. The lorica is a basket-like structure found in only some of the species of choanoflagellates. We find that although transportation does not entirely rely on hydrodynamic forces, such forces positively contribute to the transportation of prey along the collar filter. The aiding effects are most possible in non-loricate choanoflagellate species, as compared to loricate species. As hydrodynamic effects are strongly linked to the beat and shape of the flagellum, our results indicate an alternative mechanism for prey transportation, especially in biological systems where having an active transport mechanism is costly or not feasible. This suggests an additional potential role for flagella in addition to providing propulsion and generating feeding currents.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
choanoflagellates; prey transportation; lorica; low Reynolds number flow; CFD
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
- Supplementary File 1:
PDF-Document (PDF, 3124 KiB)
MDPI and ACS Style
Sørensen, S.; Asadzadeh, S.S.; Walther, J.H. Hydrodynamics of Prey Capture and Transportation in Choanoflagellates. Fluids 2021, 6, 94. https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6030094
AMA Style
Sørensen S, Asadzadeh SS, Walther JH. Hydrodynamics of Prey Capture and Transportation in Choanoflagellates. Fluids. 2021; 6(3):94. https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6030094
Chicago/Turabian StyleSørensen, Siv; Asadzadeh, Seyed S.; Walther, Jens H. 2021. "Hydrodynamics of Prey Capture and Transportation in Choanoflagellates" Fluids 6, no. 3: 94. https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6030094
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.