ArticleeLife2019
Swimming eukaryotic microorganisms exhibit a universal speed distribution.
Article in eLife, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Measurement and hydrodynamic modelling quantifies the mechanical cost of cyprid locomotion.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2026Article
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- Light force-powered cellular medical micromachines.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2026Review
- From Mud to Meat: Comparative Metabarcoding Reveals Two Different Evolutionary Paths to Carnivory in a Group of Meiofaunal Annelids.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Fourier synthesis optical diffraction tomography for kilohertz rate volumetric imaging.Science advances · 2025Article
- Costs and benefits of phytoplankton motility.ArXiv · 2025Article
- The ancient and helical architecture of Elasmobranchii's spermatozoa enables progressive motility in viscous environments.PloS one · 2025Article
- Polarised crowd in motion: insights into statistical and dynamical behavior.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Power-law intermittency in the gradient-induced self-propulsion of colloidal swimmers.Soft matter · 2024Article
- Physical constraints during Snowball Earth drive the evolution of multicellularity.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Encounter rates prime interactions between microorganisms.Interface focus · 2023Review
- Brownian Motion Influence on AFM Exosomes' Size Measurements.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Light chain 2 is a Tctex-type related axonemal dynein light chain that regulates directional ciliary motility in Trypanosoma brucei.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
- Article
- Origins of eukaryotic excitability.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Article
- Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
One approach to quantifying biological diversity consists of characterizing the statistical distribution of specific properties of a taxonomic group or habitat. Microorganisms living in fluid environments, and for whom motility is key, exploit propulsion resulting from a rich variety of shapes, forms, and swimming strategies. Here, we explore the variability of swimming speed for unicellular eukaryotes based on published data. The data naturally partitions into that from flagellates (with a small number of flagella) and from ciliates (with tens or more). Despite the morphological and size differences between these groups, each of the two probability distributions of swimming speed are accurately represented by log-normal distributions, with good agreement holding even to fourth moments. Scaling of the distributions by a characteristic speed for each data set leads to a collapse onto an apparently universal distribution. These results suggest a universal way for ecological niches to be populated by abundant microorganisms.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.