Swimming of the trophont zooid of vorticella convallaria

Dilziba Kizghin, Sangjin Ryu, Younggil Park, Sunghwan Jung

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Vorticella convallaria is a ciliated protozoan found in freshwater habitats. In the sessile or stalked trophont form, V. convallaria is shaped somewhat like a balloon as it has a body or zooid (the head of the balloon) that is about 40 ?m large with cilia around its oral part, and a stalk (the string of a balloon) anchoring the zooid to a solid surface. When a trophont zooid of V. convallaria detached from the stalk, the zooid swims around in water by creating water flow using its oral cilia. In contrast to the stalk contraction of V. convallaria that has been well studied, the swimming motility of V. convallaria is little known. In this study, we measured the swimming trajectories of the stalkless trophont zooid of V. convallaria using video microscopy and Hele-Shaw cells with a gap height of 25 ?m, traced the swimming zooid using image processing, and analyzed the swimming motion in terms of swimming velocity and mean square displacement. The stalkless trophont zooid of V. convallaria was found to swim in circular patterns with intermittent ballistic motions in the confinement, and the average swimming speed ranged from 20 ?m/s to 110 ?m/s. Since the swimming pattern of V. convallaria appeared to be affected by the level of confinement, we will continue characterizing the ciliate s swimming in the Hele-Shaw cell with different gap heights. Our study is expected to reveal the swimming motility of V. convallaria and to advance general understanding of swimming of microorganisms.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationFluid Mechanics; Micro and Nano Fluid Dynamics; Multiphase Flow
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ISBN (Electronic)9780791885307
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
EventASME 2021 Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting, FEDSM 2021 - Virtual, Online
Duration: Aug 10 2021Aug 12 2021

Publication series

NameAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers, Fluids Engineering Division (Publication) FEDSM
Volume3
ISSN (Print)0888-8116

Conference

ConferenceASME 2021 Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting, FEDSM 2021
CityVirtual, Online
Period8/10/218/12/21

Keywords

  • Hele- Shaw cell
  • Mean square displacement
  • Microorganism swimming
  • Particle tracking

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanical Engineering

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