Fluid Dynamics of Nematocyst Prey Capture

Strychalski, Wanda; Bryant, Sarah; Jadamba, Baasansuren; Kilikian, Eirini; Lai, Xiulan; Shahriyari, Leili; Segal, Richard; Wei, Ning; Miller, Laura A.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-98083-6_6

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The barb has contacted the prey by the fourth frame (bottom right) of Figure 4. These results are similar to those found for a barb moving at a constant prescribed velocity at Re = 900 reported in [21]. Inspection of this time series shows that the vorticity around the barb is strongest during the acceleration period.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

“…In our previous study, [21], we examined the fluid dynamics resulting from firing a micro-sized nematocyst stylus/tubule complex into a viscous fluid. From estimates inferred from experimental measurements, the acceleration of the barb results in a transition from the viscous regime to the inertial regime (Re 1 to Re ∼ 900).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Results from [21] showed that the barb had to overcome the viscous regime in order to reach the prey due to the size of the boundary layer that had the effect of pushing the prey out of the way. At small Re, these large boundary layers around the barb resulted in a front extending ahead of the barb.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of particular interest in the current study is how the transition to the inertial regime and the associated changes in boundary layers affect the speed of approach and ultimately whether or not the barb contacts the prey. Importantly, the large magnitude accelerations involved in nematocyst firing result in a changing fluid environment and a more complicated interaction than those seen in strictly lower Re microscale systems [21][22][23][24]. Because the types and functions of nematocysts are highly varied, our study focuses on the general structure of the basic interactions rather than trying to resolve the fine structures and mechanisms of a particular class of organelle.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Fluid Dynamics of Ballistic Strategies in Nematocyst Firing

Hamlet

Strychalski

Miller

2020

Fluids

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nematocysts are stinging organelles used by members of the phylum Cnidaria (e.g., jellyfish, anemones, hydrozoans) for a variety of important functions including capturing prey and defense. Nematocysts are the fastest-known accelerating structures in the animal world. The small scale (microns) coupled with rapid acceleration (in excess of 5 million g) present significant challenges in imaging that prevent detailed descriptions of their kinematics. The immersed boundary method was used to numerically simulate the dynamics of a barb-like structure accelerating a short distance across Reynolds numbers ranging from 0.9–900 towards a passive elastic target in two dimensions. Results indicate that acceleration followed by coasting at lower Reynolds numbers is not sufficient for a nematocyst to reach its target. The nematocyst’s barb-like projectile requires high accelerations in order to transition to the inertial regime and overcome the viscous damping effects normally encountered at small cellular scales. The longer the barb is in the inertial regime, the higher the final velocity of the projectile when it touches its target. We find the size of the target prey does not dramatically affect the barb’s approach for large enough values of the Reynolds number, however longer barbs are able to accelerate a larger amount of surrounding fluid, which in turn allows the barb to remain in the inertial regime for a longer period of time. Since the final velocity is proportional to the force available for piercing the membrane of the prey, high accelerations that allow the system to persist in the inertial regime have implications for the nematocyst’s ability to puncture surfaces such as cellular membranes or even crustacean cuticle.

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Fluid Dynamics of Ballistic Strategies in Nematocyst Firing

Hamlet

Strychalski

Miller

2020

Fluids

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The movement of these stinging cells are one of the fastest movements in the animal kingdom, with discharges as fast as 700 nanoseconds [3]. Jellyfish use these cells to subdue their prey for sustenance [4], hence their tentacles and oral arms play a vital role in survival. Figure 1 illustrate the anatomy of a "true" jellyfish's tenatcles and oral arms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Naut Your Everyday Jellyfish Model: Exploring How Tentacles and Oral Arms Impact Locomotion

Miles

Battista

2019

Fluids

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Jellyfish -majestic, energy efficient, and one of the oldest species that inhabits the oceans. It is perhaps the second item, their efficiency, that has captivated scientists to investigate their locomotive behavior for decades. Yet, no one has specifically explored the role that their tentacles and oral arms may have on their potential swimming performance, arguably the very features that give jellyfish their beauty while instilling fear into their prey (and beach-goers). We perform comparative in silico experiments to study how tentacle/oral arm number, length, placement, and density affect forward swimming speeds, cost of transport, and fluid mixing. An open source implementation of the immersed boundary method was used (IB2d) to solve the fully coupled fluid-structure interaction problem of an idealized flexible jellyfish bell with poroelastic tentacles/oral arms in a viscous, incompressible fluid. Overall tentacles/oral arms inhibit forward swimming speeds, by appearing to suppress vortex formation. Non-linear relationships between length and fluid scale (Reynolds Number) as well as tentacle/oral arm number, density, and placement are observed, illustrating that small changes in morphology could result in significant decreases in swimming speeds, in some cases by downwards of 400% between cases with to without tentacles/oral arms.

show abstract

Linking ecomechanical models and functional traits to understand phenotypic diversity

Higham

Ferry

Schmitz

et al. 2021

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Physical principles and laws determine the set of possible organismal phenotypes. Constraints arising from development, the environment, and evolutionary history then yield workable, integrated phenotypes. We propose a theoretical and practical framework that considers the role of changing environments. This 'ecomechanical approach' integrates functional organismal traits with the ecological variables. This approach informs our ability to predict species shifts in survival and distribution and provides critical insights into phenotypic diversity. We outline how to use the ecomechanical paradigm using drag-induced bending in trees as an example. Our approach can be incorporated into existing research and help build interdisciplinary bridges. Finally, we identify key factors needed for mass data collection, analysis, and the dissemination of models relevant to this framework.Using the ecomechanical approach to understand the rules of life All forms of life must comply with physical laws, resulting in a series of 'universal' or 'hard' constraints (see Glossary) [1,2]. Although these constraints limit the possible phenotypes, 'local' or 'soft' constraints emerge as a consequence of ecological, developmental, and evolutionary processes that determine which phenotypes are adaptive. Thus, any realized phenotype is the result of: (i) physical principles and processes; (ii) the context in which the organism performs the manifold tasks required for growth, survival, and reproduction (i.e., organismenvironment interactions); and (iii) its evolutionary history [1,3]. HighlightsAll organisms must comply with physical laws, which place rigid or hard constraints on survival and reproduction. Ecomechanics is the expression of that interplay, and assumes a central role when considering organismal development, ecology, and evolution.

show abstract

Fluid Dynamics of Nematocyst Prey Capture

Cited by 3 publications

References 14 publications

Fluid Dynamics of Ballistic Strategies in Nematocyst Firing

Fluid Dynamics of Ballistic Strategies in Nematocyst Firing

Naut Your Everyday Jellyfish Model: Exploring How Tentacles and Oral Arms Impact Locomotion

Linking ecomechanical models and functional traits to understand phenotypic diversity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About