Impact of Microscopic Motility on the Swimming Behavior of Parasites: Straighter Trypanosomes are More Directional

Uppaluri, Sravanti; Nagler, Jan; Stellamanns, Eric; Heddergott, Niko; Herminghaus, Stephan; Engstler, Markus; Pfohl, Thomas

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002058

Cited by 46 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In Fig. 8(a) we plot the time dependence of ε for our model trypanosome during swimming which is similar to experiments [33]. However, ε(t) varies between 0.7 and 0.85 with an average of about 0.76 which is above the experimental value.…”

Section: Swimming Of the Model African Trypanosomesupporting

confidence: 68%

“…Experiments have demonstrated that the end-to-end distance of the cell body of a swimming trypanosome amounts to ca. 60% of its cell body length [33]. We have adjusted the values of the parameters κ s , κ b and κ w such that in the simulations the end-to-end distance is around 76%.…”

Section: African Trypanosomementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The real swimming trypanosome has an average end-to-end distance ε of about 60% of its cell length [33]. In Fig.…”

Section: Swimming Of the Model African Trypanosomementioning

confidence: 99%

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Swimming at Low Reynolds Number: From Sheets to the African Trypanosome

Babu

Schmeltzer

Stark

2012

Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design

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Abstract. The African trypanosome is a protozoan which causes sleeping sickness in mammals. To study the dynamics of this microorganism at low Reynolds number, we implement and investigate three swimmer models, the Taylor sheet, a constanttorque swimmer, and a model for the African trypanosome. The first two swimmers are based on a semi-flexible sheet and the third is a full three-dimensional model. We simulate the viscous fluid environment of the swimmers using a technique called multi-particle collision dynamics. We verify our technique by implementing the Taylor sheet which is activated by a bending wave traveling along the sheet. Its ballistic motion turns into diffusive motion when the sheet becomes passive. For the constant-torque swimmer we apply a torque to the semi-flexible sheet which assumes a cork-screw shape and then generates the thrust force for propelling the swimmer forward. Whereas the angular velocity scales linearly with the torque, the swimming velocity displays a non-linear dependence. Finally, our trypanosome model swims with the help of a beating flagellum attached to the cell body. Since it wraps around the body, the model trypanosome displays a helical swimming trajectory. The swimming velocity displays a non-linear increase with the beating frequency of the flagellum.

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Section: Swimming Of the Model African Trypanosomesupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: African Trypanosomementioning

confidence: 99%

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Swimming at Low Reynolds Number: From Sheets to the African Trypanosome

Babu

Schmeltzer

Stark

2012

Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design

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“…Differences in cell body shape are correlated with a diverse range of cell behaviors contributing to the directional motion of the cell. For instance, straighter cells swim more directionally, whereas cells that exhibit little net displacement appear to be more bent (80). Because the flagellum is attached laterally along the length of the cell body, a helical wave of the flagellum necessarily applies a torsional stress to the cell body.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trypanosoma brucei FKBP12 Differentially Controls Motility and Cytokinesis in Procyclic and Bloodstream Forms

et al. 2013

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e FKBP12 proteins are able to inhibit TOR kinases or calcineurin phosphatases upon binding of rapamycin or FK506 drugs, respectively. The Trypanosoma brucei FKBP12 homologue (TbFKBP12) was found to be a cytoskeleton-associated protein with specific localization in the flagellar pocket area of the bloodstream form. In the insect procyclic form, RNA interference-mediated knockdown of TbFKBP12 affected motility. In bloodstream cells, depletion of TbFKBP12 affected cytokinesis and cytoskeleton architecture. These last effects were associated with the presence of internal translucent cavities limited by an inside-out configuration of the normal cell surface, with a luminal variant surface glycoprotein coat lined up by microtubules. These cavities, which recreated the streamlined shape of the normal trypanosome cytoskeleton, might represent unsuccessful attempts for cell abscission. We propose that TbFKBP12 differentially affects stage-specific processes through association with the cytoskeleton.A frican trypanosomes are extracellular protozoan flagellated parasites responsible for sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in cattle. The life cycle of Trypanosoma brucei encompasses different stages, including the long slender bloodstream forms (BF) proliferating in mammalian blood and the procyclic forms (PF) that actively multiply in the gut of the Glossina vector (1).Trypanosomes are among the most divergent eukaryotes in evolution and display specific features, many of which are related to cell division probably due to the fact that most organelles are present at one copy per cell and have to be duplicated and segregated synchronously between the daughter cells. This division involves check points that differ from those of other eukaryotes, such as the control of karyokinesis when cytokinesis is inhibited (2, 3) and vice versa (4). Molecular effectors of these check points, such as mitogen-activated protein kinase and cyclin-dependent kinase, are present in trypanosomes but diverge in function compared to other eukaryotes (5, 6).The flagellum and its motility appear to play a key role in the control of cell division (7-9). This organelle initiates at the basal body, which is associated to the kinetoplast (10, 11), emerges from the flagellar pocket (FP), and it is attached along the cell body for most of its length by the flagellum attachment zone (FAZ). The flagellum contains a canonical axoneme and the paraflagellar rod (PFR) that are physically linked (12-14). The duplication and segregation of these structures are interdependent. During cytokinesis, the ingression of the cleavage furrow follows an axis in between the new and the old flagellum. The position and initiation of the furrow are closely related to the FAZ, as demonstrated by the study of flagellum mutants (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21).In eukaryotes such as yeasts or mammals the TOR pathway is a major player in the control of cell division mediated by the action of two protein complexes, . These complexes contain the two different threonine/serine kinases T...

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“…31 Motion is transported or super-diffusive for a > 1, limited or sub-diffusive for a < 1, and freely diffusing or random walk-like for a ¼ 1. 31,32 In order to analyze the 1D-rotational motion of confined RBCs in the image plane in addition to the cell membrane edge fluctuations, the mean-centered Cartesian coordinates of the RBC's contours were first converted into polar coordinates with the radius r at the angle b at equiangular distances of 0.5 . The polar coordinates were then partitioned into a Fourier function, rðb; tÞ ¼ c 0 ðtÞ þ P n q¼1 ½c q ðtÞ Á cos ðq Á b þ / j ðtÞÞ , using multiple trigonometric regression.…”

Section: Analysis Of Diffusive Behavior and Cell Membrane Edge Fluctumentioning

confidence: 99%

A self-filling microfluidic device for noninvasive and time-resolved single red blood cell experiments

et al. 2016

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Existing approaches to red blood cell (RBC) experiments on the single-cell level usually rely on chemical or physical manipulations that often cause difficulties with preserving the RBC's integrity in a controlled microenvironment. Here, we introduce a straightforward, self-filling microfluidic device that autonomously separates and isolates single RBCs directly from unprocessed human blood samples and confines them in diffusion-controlled microchambers by solely exploiting their unique intrinsic properties. We were able to study the photo-induced oxygenation cycle of single functional RBCs by Raman microscopy without the limitations typically observed in optical tweezers based methods. Using bright-field microscopy, our noninvasive approach further enabled the time-resolved analysis of RBC flickering during the reversible shape evolution from the discocyte to the echinocyte morphology. Due to its specialized geometry, our device is particularly suited for studying the temporal behavior of single RBCs under precise control of their environment that will provide important insights into the RBC's biomedical and biophysical properties. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx

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Impact of Microscopic Motility on the Swimming Behavior of Parasites: Straighter Trypanosomes are More Directional

Cited by 46 publications

References 37 publications

Swimming at Low Reynolds Number: From Sheets to the African Trypanosome

Swimming at Low Reynolds Number: From Sheets to the African Trypanosome

Trypanosoma brucei FKBP12 Differentially Controls Motility and Cytokinesis in Procyclic and Bloodstream Forms

A self-filling microfluidic device for noninvasive and time-resolved single red blood cell experiments

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