spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ramia, M.
Right arrow Articles by Swan, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ramia, M.
Right arrow Articles by Swan, M.

Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol 187, Issue 1 75-100, Copyright © 1994 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

THE SWIMMING OF UNIPOLAR CELLS OF SPIRILLUM VOLUTANS: THEORY AND OBSERVATIONS

M Ramia and M Swan

Bright-field high-speed cinemicrography was employed to record the swimming of six unipolar cells of Spirillum volutans. A complete set of geometrical parameters for each of these six cells, which are of typical but varying dimensions, was measured experimentally. For each cell, the mean swimming linear and angular speeds were measured for a period representing an exact number of flagellar cycles (at least four and up to 12 cycles). Two independent sets of measurements were carried out for each cell, one relating to the trailing and the other to the leading configuration of the flagellar bundle. The geometry of these cells was numerically modelled with curved isoparametric boundary elements (from the measured geometrical parameters), and an existing boundary element method (BEM) program was applied to predict the mean swimming linear and angular speeds. A direct comparison between the experimentally observed swimming speeds and those of the BEM predictions is made. For a typical cell, a direct comparison of the swimming trajectory, in each of the trailing and the leading flagellar configurations, was also included. Previous resistive force theory (RFT) as well as slender body theory (SBT) models are both restricted to somewhat non-realistic 'slender body' geometries, and they both fail to consider swimming kinematics. The present BEM model, however, is applicable to organisms with arbitrary geometry and correctly accounts for swimming kinematics; hence, it agrees better with experimental observations than do the previous models.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Appl. Environ. Microbiol.Home page
R. Thar and T. Fenchel
Survey of Motile Microaerophilic Bacterial Morphotypes in the Oxygen Gradient above a Marine Sulfidic Sediment
Appl. Envir. Microbiol., July 1, 2005; 71(7): 3682 - 3691.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1994