Functional morphology of gliding motility in benthic diatoms

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bondoc-Naumovitz, Karen Grace; Crosato, Emanuele; Wan, Kirsty Y.
• 署名单位: University of Exeter; University of Exeter
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-15046
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2426910122
• 发表日期: 2025-03-25
• 关键词: movement; locomotion; responses; platform; LIFE

摘要

Diatoms, a highly successful group of photosynthetic algae, contribute to a quarter of global primary production. Many species are motile, despite having no appendages and a completely rigid cell body. Cells move to seek out nutrients, locate mating partners, and undergo vertical migration. To explore the natural diversity of diatom motility, we perform a comparative study across five common biofilm-forming species. Combining morphological measurements with high-resolution cell tracking, we establish how gliding movements relate to the morphology of the raphe-a specialized slit in the cell wall responsible for motility generation. Our detailed analyses reveal that cells exhibit a rich but species-dependent phenotype, switching stochastically between four stereotyped motility states. We model this behavior and use stochastic simulations to predict how heterogeneity in microscale navigation patterns leads to differences in long-time diffusivity and dispersal. In a representative species, we extend these findings to quantify diatom gliding in complex, naturalistic 3D environments, suggesting that cells may exploit these distinct motility signatures to achieve niche segregation in nature.