Propensity of undulatory swimmers, such as worms, to go against the flow

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Jinzhou YuanHaim H Bau

Abstract

The ability to orient oneself in response to environmental cues is crucial to the survival and function of diverse organisms. One such orientation behavior is the alignment of aquatic organisms with (negative rheotaxis) or against (positive rheotaxis) fluid current. The questions of whether low-Reynolds-number, undulatory swimmers, such as worms, rheotax and whether rheotaxis is a deliberate or an involuntary response to mechanical forces have been the subject of conflicting reports. To address these questions, we use Caenorhabditis elegans as a model undulatory swimmer and examine, in experiment and theory, the orientation of C. elegans in the presence of flow. We find that when close to a stationary surface the animal aligns itself against the direction of the flow. We elucidate for the first time to our knowledge the mechanisms of rheotaxis in worms and show that rheotaxis can be explained solely by mechanical forces and does not require sensory input or deliberate action. The interaction between the flow field induced by the swimmer and a nearby surface causes the swimmer to tilt toward the surface and the velocity gradient associated with the flow rotates the animal to face upstream. Fluid mechanical computer simulations f...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 15, 2015·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Jinzhou YuanHaim H Bau
Apr 6, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Alejandro BilbaoJerzy Blawzdziewicz
Oct 9, 2015·EvoDevo·Giovanni AnnonaSalvatore D'Aniello
Sep 15, 2020·Integrative and Comparative Biology·Nicholas A Battista
Jan 14, 2020·Biophysical Journal·Alexander HornungMarie-Pierre Valignat
Oct 20, 2021·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·K J Painter

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