ArticlePhysical review. E2023
Phototaxis of Chlamydomonas arises from a tuned adaptive photoresponse shared with multicellular Volvocine green algae.
Article in Physical review. E, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Light-dependent processes in algae across scales: from cellular physiology to ecological organization.Plant physiology · 2026Review
- Theory of cell body lensing and phototaxis sign reversal in "eyeless" mutants of Chlamydomonas.Physical review. E · 2026Article
- Fast and Slow Signal Propagation in Abiotic Polypeptide Assemblies.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2026Article
- Light-Dependent Switching of Circling Handedness in Microswimmer Navigation.Physical review letters · 2026Article
- Algal optics.Physical review. E · 2026Article
- Stochastic motility energetics reveals cooperative bacterial swarming in optical tweezers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Chlamylipo, aBiophysics and physicobiology · 2026Article
- Phototactic Decision-Making by Microalgae.Physical review letters · 2025Article
- Physics of microbial taxis and behaviours in response to various physical stimuli.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025Review
- Identification of the governing equation of stimulus-response data for run-and-tumble dynamics.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Intermediate light adaptation induces oscillatory phototaxis switching and pattern formation inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The 2025 motile active matter roadmap.Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal · 2025Review
- Uncertainty minimization and pattern recognition inJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Sensing a rainbow of colors: algal photoreceptors.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Review
- Light-regulated chloroplast morphodynamics in a single-celled dinoflagellate.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Light-dependent switching between two flagellar beating states selects versatile phototaxis strategies in microswimmers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Reinforcement learning of biomimetic navigation: a model problem for sperm chemotaxis.The European physical journal. E, Soft matter · 2024Article
- Perspectives on Principles of Cellular Behavior from the Biophysics of Protists.Integrative and comparative biology · 2023Review
- Active oscillations in microscale navigation.Animal cognition · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
A fundamental issue in biology is the nature of evolutionary transitions from unicellular to multicellular organisms. Volvocine algae are models for this transition, as they span from the unicellular biflagellate Chlamydomonas to multicellular species of Volvox with up to 50,000 Chlamydomonas-like cells on the surface of a spherical extracellular matrix. The mechanism of phototaxis in these species is of particular interest since they lack a nervous system and intercellular connections; steering is a consequence of the response of individual cells to light. Studies of Volvox and Gonium, a 16-cell organism with a plate-like structure, have shown that the flagellar response to changing illumination of the cellular photosensor is adaptive, with a recovery time tuned to the rotation period of the colony around its primary axis. Here, combining high-resolution studies of the flagellar photoresponse of micropipette-held Chlamydomonas with 3D tracking of freely swimming cells, we show that such tuning also underlies its phototaxis. A mathematical model is developed based on the rotations around an axis perpendicular to the flagellar beat plane that occur through the adaptive response to oscillating light levels as the organism spins. Exploiting a separation of timescales between the flagellar photoresponse and phototurning, we develop an equation of motion that accurately describes the observed photoalignment. In showing that the adaptive timescales in Volvocine algae are tuned to the organisms' rotational periods across three orders of magnitude in cell number, our results suggest a unified picture of phototaxis in green algae in which the asymmetry in torques that produce phototurns arise from the individual flagella of Chlamydomonas, the flagellated edges of Gonium, and the flagellated hemispheres of Volvox.
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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.