Hydrodynamics of the double-wave structure of insect spermatozoa flagella

Pak, On Shun; Spagnolie, Saverio E.; Lauga, Eric

doi:10.1098/rsif.2011.0841

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…2(d). The structure is reminiscent of the double-wave structure of insect spermatozoa in the opposite chirality case 54 (see also Ref. 55).…”

Section: A the Swimming Speed Accurate To O(ε 2 )mentioning

confidence: 94%

Swimming and pumping of rigid helical bodies in viscous fluids

Spagnolie

2014

Physics of Fluids

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Rotating helical bodies of arbitrary cross-sectional profile and infinite length are explored as they swim through or transport a viscous fluid. The Stokes equations are studied in a helical coordinate system, and closed form analytical expressions for the force-free swimming speed and torque are derived in the asymptotic regime of nearly cylindrical bodies. High-order accurate expressions for the velocity field and swimming speed are derived for helical bodies of finite pitch angle through a double series expansion. The analytical predictions match well with the results of full numerical simulations, and accurately predict the optimal pitch angle for a given cross-sectional profile. This work may improve the modeling and design of helical structures used in microfluidic manipulation, synthetic microswimmer engineering, and the transport and mixing of viscous fluids. C

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“…2(d). The structure is reminiscent of the double-wave structure of insect spermatozoa in the opposite chirality case 54 (see also Ref. 55).…”

Section: A the Swimming Speed Accurate To O(ε 2 )mentioning

confidence: 94%

Swimming and pumping of rigid helical bodies in viscous fluids

Spagnolie

2014

Physics of Fluids

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“…The motile behaviour of the spermatozoa of animals has been studied in detail since the beginnings of microscopy due to its importance for reproductive health. Because a correlation between motility and fertility has been shown to exist [ 96 , 97 ], numerous species of fish [ 98 ], birds [ 99 ], mammals [ 41 , 100 , 101 ], insects [ 102 – 105 ] and sea urchins [ 106 ] have had their spermatozoa examined. A particular focus is often placed on the relation between either the swimming speed or the amplitude of lateral displacement of the cell body and the success in fertilisation by human spermatozoa [ 7 ].…”

Section: Spermatozoamentioning

confidence: 99%

The bank of swimming organisms at the micron scale (BOSO-Micro)

2021

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Unicellular microscopic organisms living in aqueous environments outnumber all other creatures on Earth. A large proportion of them are able to self-propel in fluids with a vast diversity of swimming gaits and motility patterns. In this paper we present a biophysical survey of the available experimental data produced to date on the characteristics of motile behaviour in unicellular microswimmers. We assemble from the available literature empirical data on the motility of four broad categories of organisms: bacteria (and archaea), flagellated eukaryotes, spermatozoa and ciliates. Whenever possible, we gather the following biological, morphological, kinematic and dynamical parameters: species, geometry and size of the organisms, swimming speeds, actuation frequencies, actuation amplitudes, number of flagella and properties of the surrounding fluid. We then organise the data using the established fluid mechanics principles for propulsion at low Reynolds number. Specifically, we use theoretical biophysical models for the locomotion of cells within the same taxonomic groups of organisms as a means of rationalising the raw material we have assembled, while demonstrating the variability for organisms of different species within the same group. The material gathered in our work is an attempt to summarise the available experimental data in the field, providing a convenient and practical reference point for future studies.

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“…Resistive-force theory is the leading-order term in a systematic expansion of the flow around slender bodies in powers of ∼ (ln L/r) −1 , where L is the total length of helix 8,[30][31][32][33] . Although resistive-force theory can lose some features of the interrelations between the fluid and curved geometry 34,35 , we first apply it for its simplicity and convenience. If the resistive-force theory doesn't work well, we need to consider the expansion with higher orders.…”

Section: Hydrodynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The wobbling-to-swimming transition of rotated helices

Man

Lauga

2013

Physics of Fluids

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A growing body of work aims at designing and testing micron-scale synthetic swimmers. One method, inspired by the locomotion of flagellated bacteria, consists of applying a rotating magnetic field to a rigid, helically-shaped, propeller attached to a magnetic head. When the resulting device, termed an artificial bacteria flagellum, is aligned perpendicularly to the applied field, the helix rotates and the swimmer moves forward. Experimental investigation of artificial bacteria flagella shows that at low frequency of the applied field, the axis of the helix does not align perpendicularly to the field but wobbles around the helix, with an angle increasing as the inverse of the field frequency. By numerical computations and asymptotic analysis, we provide a theoretical explanation for this wobbling behavior. We numerically demonstrate the wobbling-to-swimming transition as a function of the helix geometry and the dimensionless Mason number which quantifies the ratio of viscous to magnetic torques. We then employ an asymptotic expansion for near-straight helices to derive an analytical estimate for the wobbling angle allowing to rationalize our computations and past experimental results. These results can help guide future design of artificial helical swimmers.

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Hydrodynamics of the double-wave structure of insect spermatozoa flagella

Cited by 15 publications

References 38 publications

Swimming and pumping of rigid helical bodies in viscous fluids

Swimming and pumping of rigid helical bodies in viscous fluids

The bank of swimming organisms at the micron scale (BOSO-Micro)

The wobbling-to-swimming transition of rotated helices

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