4–6 Oct 2023
Biozentrum, University of Würzburg
Europe/Berlin timezone

FUNCTIONAL MORPHOLOGY AND FLUID DYNAMICS OF FORAGING IN ‘TYPICAL EXCAVATES’

Not scheduled
20m
Room A101 (Biozentrum, University of Würzburg)

Room A101

Biozentrum, University of Würzburg

Am Hubland
PHYMOT contributed talk (20 min)

Speaker

Federica Miano (Technical University of Denmark)

Description

Excavates are phagotrophic flagellates characterized by a ventral groove and two flagella. The anterior flagellum is naked, and its beating creates a feeding current directed towards the groove, while the posterior flagellum is equipped with a vane and beats within the groove. We combined flow visualization and observations of prey capture in three clades of excavates with computational fluid dynamic modelling to understand the functional significance of this arrangement. We estimated clearance rate magnitudes from flow visualization and CFD modelling. We found that a vaned flagellum beating in a confined groove produces a very efficient feeding current at low energy costs, irrespective of the beat plane and the orientation of the vane and of all other morphological variations.

Primary author

Federica Miano (Technical University of Denmark)

Presentation materials

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