ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2024
Foraging mechanisms in excavate flagellates shed light on the functional ecology of early eukaryotes.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Embodied behavioural complexity in a ciliated microorganism.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Precise 3D Tracking of Highly Non-Planar Eukaryotic Flagellar Beating Patterns Using Digital Holographic Microscopy.Small methods · 2026Article
- Observing grazing behavior transitions in Cafeteria roenbergensis with video-rate two-photon microscopy.Journal of biological physics · 2025Article
- Quantifying the fitness contribution of phagocytosis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The fluid dynamics and functional diversity of the flagella of free-living flagellates.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025Review
- Form and function in biological filaments: a physicist's review.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025Review
- A diverse Palaeoproterozoic microbial ecosystem implies early eukaryogenesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- A Deeply Branching Lineage in Heterolobosea (Discoba) With Multiflagellated and Multigrooved Life Stages.The Journal of eukaryotic microbiologyArticle
- Characterization of Skoliomonas gen. nov., a haloalkaliphilic anaerobe related to barthelonids (Metamonada).The Journal of eukaryotic microbiologyArticle
- Morphology, Ultrastructure, and Classification of Barthelonids (Metamonada Incertae Sedis): With Descriptions of Microbarthelona Gen. Nov., and Parabarthelona Gen. Nov.The Journal of eukaryotic microbiologyArticle
- Eukaryovorous Predation in Evolutionarily Significant Excavate-Like Flagellates.The Journal of eukaryotic microbiologyArticle
- Novel Foraging Mechanisms in Atypical Excavate Flagellates.The Journal of eukaryotic microbiologyArticle
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The phagotrophic flagellates described as "typical excavates" have been hypothesized to be morphologically similar to the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor and understanding the functional ecology of excavates may therefore help shed light on the ecology of these early eukaryotes. Typical excavates are characterized by a posterior flagellum equipped with a vane that beats in a ventral groove. Here, we combined flow visualization and observations of prey capture in representatives of the three clades of excavates with computational fluid dynamic modeling, to understand the functional significance of this cell architecture. We record substantial differences amongst species in the orientation of the vane and the beat plane of the posterior flagellum. Clearance rate magnitudes estimated from flow visualization and modeling are both like that of other similarly sized flagellates. The interaction between a vaned flagellum beating in a confinement is modeled to produce a very efficient feeding current at low energy costs, irrespective of the beat plane and vane orientation and of all other morphological variations. Given this predicted uniformity of function, we suggest that the foraging systems of typical excavates studied here may be good proxies to understand those potentially used by our distant ancestors more than 1 billion years ago.
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